Revitalization of Ahmedabad’s informal walled city: the role of urban morphology

This research investigated the regeneration project of Ahmedabad’s walled city led by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). Particularly, the analysis of the experimental case of the Aka-Sheth-Kuwa-ni-Pol showed how such process of urban regeneration (today still in progress) essentially basis on a binomial: the understanding of the morphological structure of the informal city and a direct involvement of urban community within the transformative process. Thanks to this binomial the transformation of the walled city into a contemporary city is occurring in such a way that the city is preserving its historical meaning: not a ‘museum city’ but a city which is lively, active, dynamic and conscious of its own identity. Specifically, under the guidance of AMC, house’s owners within the walled city, instead abandoning their real estate property for benefit of new building in the western city, have started to conceive their house as part of a common heritage, and the restoration of it as an adaptation to new standards of contemporary living. After this research and a brief analysis of some recent results of this transformative process, it can be stated how strategies of urban regeneration, morphologically based, might represent a solution technically, economically and socially efficient in ca se of historicized contexts.