AREA SPECIFIC BUILDING REGULATIONS FOR HILL TOWNS

Abstract

This study aim to formulate new contextually appropriate area specific building regulations for hill towns, which are environmentally sensitive and seismically vulnerable, have peculiar intrinsic characterstics, facing numerous problems due to inappropriate development and are experiencing high pressure for development. This aim is intended to be fulfilled through understanding of types of building regulatory systems; identifaction of problems/issues of existing development in Indian hill towns; and study of building regulations which are implemented in different hill regions to regulate development and their peculiar impacts and problems in context of a typical hill town. This study also intended to identify suitable approach and criteria for formulation of new building regulations for hill towns along with development of procedure for formulating area specific building regulations and formulation of area specific building regulations based on proposed procedure for a hill town. Existing building regulations in India cities/ towns are in general are uniform, strong, rigid, unclear and non contextual but are poorly enforced and regulated. The impacts of these contextually inappropriate building regulations are most pronounced in hill towns, which are ecologically sensitive and vulnerable to different hazards and existing building regulations are formulated without considering the geo-environmental, social, cultural and infrastructural context of hill towns. The resultant development which is outcome of these inappropriate building regulations have many problems and inherent issues, which contributing to environmental degradation in and around hill towns and affects the ecology of the region at large. Moreover, there are critical issues like ecological sensitivity, proneness to hazards, visibility, which are important for development in hill towns and very few building regulations are formulated to address these issues. Existing building regulations of different hill towns of India and other countries are studied to have an understanding of building regulations of hill towns and various lacunas of existing building regulations of Indian hill towns, which indicates that exiting non contextual building regulations of hill towns are, need to be modified and/or new regulations need to be formulated. Shimla-a typical hill town of North India is considered as the study context for identification of various issues and problem in existing building regulations and their impacts on urban environment; and modification in existing building regulation or formulation of new regulations. iv Two distinct ways as amendment in any existing building regulations i.e. short term approach; and replacement of existing building regulations with other regulations like performance based regulations, form based regulations, and site specific regulations are considered for change in existing non-contextual building regulations of hill towns of India but, none of the identified ways seem sufficient to address all issues of development of hill towns of India. Therefore, a new approach in which different building regulations are formulated from more than one ways for various aspects of development in hill towns is adopted and it is termed as ‘Area Specific Building Regulations’ and these regulations are formulated and applicable at area/zone level based on different area characteristics. These new regulations have two components as identification suitable area/zone typologies for different use in a particular hill town based on identified criteria which are crucial for development in hill towns, and formulation of different building regulations for these suitable area typologies for a particular use in a hill town. Stability, topography, slope direction, existing vegetation, access, and visual/aesthetic significance are considered as criteria for formulation of area specific building regulations for hill towns. Stability is an essential necessity for commencement of any type of development and therefore, it is considered as prerequisite for any development in hill towns and remaining five criteria are considered important for formulation of suitable area/zone typologies and area specific building regulations. Procedure for identification of suitable area typologies based on topography, slope direction, existing vegetation, access and visual/aesthetic significance is devised for residential (plotted and group housing) and office buildings in hill towns along with procedures for formulation of different building regulations like F.A.R, ground coverage, number of storey and height of buildings and setbacks, based on different criteria/factor which influences these regulations. These procedures are devised with objectives to have dense development on areas having gentle slopes, good solar exposure i.e. southern slopes, sparse vegetation, good access and insignificants visual significance; and low or sparse development on areas having steep slopes, low solar exposure i.e. northern slopes, dense vegetation, poor access and significant visual significance. Setbacks are formed by considering minimum solar exposure of 03 hours to buildings and protection of one building from the shadow of other buildings. v Based on the suggested procedure for identification of suitable area typologies, suitable area typologies for residential (plotted and group housing) development and office buildings are identified. Total 625 area/zone typologies/ combinations are formed by combining different sub factors of topography, slope direction, existing vegetation, access and visual significance and out of these 625 area/zone typologies; 225, 210, 150, 120 and 104 area/zone typologies are considered suitable for residential detached buildings, residential semi-detached buildings, residential row buildings, group housing and office buildings respectively in Shimla. New area specific building regulations are proposed for residential (plotted and group housing) and office buildings in Shimla, based on the devised procedure for different building regulations. New proposed F.A.R regulation varies, from 2.5 to 0.5 for residential detached buildings, from 2.0 to .5 for semi-detached buildings, from 1.75 to 0.4 for row housing, from 3.0 to 1.0 for group housing and office buildings in Shimla. Proposed ground coverage varies from 50% to 20% for residential detached buildings, from 55% to 25% for residential semi-detached buildings, from 60% to 35% for residential row buildings, and from 50% to 25% for group housing and office buildings. Proposed number of storey varies from 06 to 02 for different use for new development in Shimla and according to number of storey or height of building setback regulations also varies from 1.5 m to 5.0 m. Different environmental regulations like cutting of slopes, rain water harvesting, tree protection, site drainage etc are suggested along with regulations and guidelines for adoption of energy efficient design and aesthetic regulations which can be enforced in Indian hill towns.