1. 1
Reading the City - Guwahati
Ar.Akanksha Singh & Barsha Kunda
ABSTRACT
The paper presentsthe morphological analysisforGuwahati.Itisone of the oldestcities
and has evolvedthroughvariousstagesof developmentandlately, the cityhasenteredaphase of
vigorousgrowthchangingremarkablyitsfabricof settlementandthe overall morphologyof the urban
landscape ,throughoutthe historyof growthanddevelopmentof Guwahati city,andwill discuss why
Guwahati isthe way it istoday and the paper will alsoanswerwhatbroughtthisshiftof settlementcore,
and howit impactedthe cityas a whole bothby traditional wayof analyzingthe morphologyof city and
followedby space syntax analysis.
.Keywords: morphology, space syntax,
SSAA (sushantschool of artand architecture), Ansal University,Haryana ,India tel. +91 124 4750400,+91 124
4750501,info@ansaluniversity.edu.in.
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Guwahati is one of the oldest cities, it is located in (Kamrup), (Pragjyotishpura), (Gauhati in the
modern era) is the largest city of Assamand one of the fastest growing cities in India.
Once known as Pragjyotishpur (the light of the East), Guwahati derives its name from the
Assamese words “Guwa” means areca nut and “Haat” means market.
Guwahati lies between the banks of the Brahmaputra River and the foothills of the Shillong
plateau, with LGB International Airport the west and the town of Narengi to the east. It is
gradually being expanded as North Guwahati to the northern bank of the Brahmaputra.
The fabled land of tea plantations and nature tourism has many other gems up its sleeve to lure
visitors. The gateway to seven sisters (seven states of northeast India) is indeed a land that
hides a few mysteries under its veil.
3.0 GENERAL APPROACH

2. 2
we selected a parcel of 3km X 3km of Guhawati city
for our analysis because this parcel has a generic
pattern of the whole city. this parcel includes:-
1. main connectors -AssamTrunk road, railway
station, NH-37
2.topographical features- river Brahmaputra,
Nilachal Hills
3. The Kamakhya temple
FIG1.0 4.
commercial corridors along the railway track
5. Pandu port
4.0 THE ANALYSIS
Space syntax
Space syntax research has found that spatial configuration alone, represented and measured in
a specific manner, explains a substantial proportion of the variance between aggregate human
movement rates in different locations in both urban and building interior space. Although it
seems possible to explain ‘ how’ people move on the basis of these analyses, the question of
why they move this way has always seemed problematic since the analysis contains no explicit
representations of either motivations or individual cognition. One possible explanation for the
predictive power of the method is that the way people understand their environment and
decide on movement behaviours is somehow implicitly embedded in space syntax analysis. This
paper explores the contribution made by space syntax theories and research to our
understanding of environmental cognition, and addresses the question of why the axial
representation is so empirically successful. On the basis of a review of some of the relevant
findings of space syntax research, it proposes that ‘ cognitive space’ , defined as that space
which supports our understanding of configurations more extensive than our current visual
field, is not a metric space, but topological or pre-topological in nature. A hypothetical process
for deriving a non-metric space from the metric visibility graph involving exploratory movement
is developed. The resulting space is shown to closely resemble the axial graph. Recent research
using simulation agents with vision confirms that axial movement patterns follow from a simple
random movement rule combined with a forward facing visual field. It is argued that the social

3. 3
effects of spatial configuration in structuring communication and transaction between
individuals is based on co-presence in space, and that copresence is determined by the local
visual field and the way that configuration brings movement routes through that field, are thus
largely exosomatic in nature.
MORPHOLOGY
Morphologically, the area of Guwahati that we have taken into consideration can be distinctly
differentiated into 3 major DISTRICTS. One surrounding the Kamakhya temple with the contour,
second , the area around the pandu port. And thirdly, the newer development around the
railway track.
broadly the two major natural edges that are there in the context are the Brahmaputra valley
and the Nilachal Hills and the physical egde is the railway corridor.
The fabric is more dense in the older settlements than the fabric in newer developments.
The Grain can be classified into three major, course, the commercial area around the railway
track. The fine, the residential area which I newly developed now. And the slightly course, the
older residential settelments.
The structure can be broadly classified into 3 patterns.
1. The organic pattern, area around the Kamakhya temple
1. The linear grid planned pattern, the newly built residential areas. They have
planned/designated open spaces
2. The transitory/ hybrid grid pattern, the older residential settelments. These colonies
have grown incrementally.
THE city has
1. UNIFORM TEXTURE- In the colonies that are new or are under construction
2. UNEVEN- In the old residential colonies and in the contoured area around the Kamakhya
temple the texture is Uneven
THE MOST INTEGRATED ROADS AND AREAS
1. NH-37
2. ASSAM TRUNK ROAD
3. A K DEB ROAD
4. THE JUNCTION POINT TO THE KAMAKHYA TEMPLE
5. THE DIFFERENENT INDIVIDUAL CORE OF THE VARIOUS COLONIES

4. 4
It is evident from the analysis that the area around the railway precent is more commercially
developed and therefore, the built structures are high rise.
The new developed colonies are also G+2-G+4 structures
The area around the pandu port which are older residential zones are mostly G or G+1
structures. And also the on the contoured part around the Kamakhya temple is also not more
than G+2 structure
4.0 CONCLUSION
One of the mostimportantreasonsforthe developmentof Guwahati ispanduport.Because before
independencethe britishwantedtodobusinessof oil andteafromvariousareas of Assamand for that
reasontheybuiltthe pandu port.During1903 the lengthof railwaytrackswasonly715M whichwas
constructedaround1903.
Andafterthat the core shiftedtothe railwaystationof maligaonwhichstartedworkingfromthe early
2000s. Andnowin2015 the stationisone of the mostimportantbusinesszonesof Guwahati..
on the basis of space syntax analysis we concluded that-
AXIAL MAP – INTEGRATION (HH)
SHALLOW AREA
DEEP AREA
AXIAL MAP – MEAN DEAPTH

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Globalization as complex process carries plurality of cultures, interests and needs that should
be recognized
6 REFERENCES
https://online.assam.gov.in/web/guest/urban
http://www.guwahati.com/content/starfish-morphology
Space Syntax and Spatial CognitionOr,whythe axial line?AlanPennUniversityCollege London,UK