Article

Ruchita Patel, Birla Vishwakarma Mahavidyalaya; Bhasker Vijaykumar Bhatt ,Bhaikaka Centre for Human Settlements, APIED; Jagruti Shah ,Birla Vishwakarma Mahavidyalaya

Increasing population and urbanization demand more resources in the urban area in terms of hard and soft infrastructure both. Many problems related to spatial resources in the urban area are addressed which disputes to development of the city. The process of building up spaces by every contributing individual and organizations somehow leaves certain unbuilt/un-utilized. These vacant, unused or underused spaces in an urban area are considered as urban void causing a rupture in the urban fabric. These spaces have a potential to get converted into functionalized space. The current study is addressing the identification of such spaces in a part of Vadodara City, located in the Gujarat State. The city has flourished over past decades with population growth and spatial development in the context of economic growth and potential. In Gujarat, the cities are developed under the aegis of the Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development Act, 1976. The act imposes the development through means of a development plan, revealing proposed zoning and regulation at a macro level. The micro level land parcels are dealt by planning Town Planning Schemes and imposition of Building Control regulations. Void spaces are identified, their characteristics are understood and visualized by an observational study. Further, these spaces are addressed with the possible inclusion of improved functionality in terms of its use for the urban population. In the study area, ten void spaces were identified. However, the paper discusses five such pockets in detail with possible remedial measures leading to improvement of space utilization.