This paper is an effort to understand the contribution of Building byelaws in architectural development.

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Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology
APRIL 222
ABHASH RAHANGDALE
SCHOLAR NO. : 181110008
RESEARCH PAPER
BYELAWS AND CITIES
2021

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Abstract
This paper is an effort to understand the contribution of Building byelaws in
architectural development. These developments can be further divided into historic
and modern. There has to be laws or regulations binding on the prospective builders, if
not, the building constructed will be Un-scientific, Unhealthy and Inconvenient for the
people to occupy. The building bye-laws should be reasonably rigid and adequately
flexible as they have to be sometimes revised according the improvements affected in
science and engineering and as per peculiar circumstances existing at the time. Proper
adoption of Byelaws will lead to the most civilized and efficient development and will
raise us a STEP UP For growth & enlargement of habitat.
Keywords:
Definition of Bye Laws, Objective and need of byelaws, History of byelaws,
How cities are controlled by building byelaws.
Introduction
According to me the growth of civilization has also resulted in more and more laws,
regulations, and restrictions and of course their violations as well. There are laws and
laws, all around such as constitutional, civic laws, traffic laws, marriage laws, financial
laws, personal laws etc. while some of the laws are essential for the humanity, there
are other which held in the proper and planned growth of civilization in general. In the
olden days human beings had been wandering from place to place in search of
livelihood but the modernization has put an end to all such adventures. Knowledge,
have developed lot of conveniences for their proper living. Human beings no longer
have to roam around for proper shelter to live in better planned environment.
For construction of such houses, some basic rules and regulations which may be
termed as Building Byelaws are absolutely necessary. These are the regulations that
are generally made by local governments or the municipal departments of State
government, for ensuring structural safety, public health and hygiene. Byelaws are

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different for different areas. This governs the height of building, coverage of building at
ground, set-backs, etc.
Building controls and architectural planning of cities is not new to India even the most
ancient townships of Indus civilization had these elements. The origins of modern
building bye laws can be found in the 16th
Century British local authority laws that
defined civic life and services in cities.
Definition of Bye Laws
The building byelaws are defined as the standards & specifications designed to grant
minimum safeguards to the workers during construction, to the health & comfort of
the users & to provide enough safety to the public in general. The regulation set out
the basic requirements to be observed in the design and construction of buildings.
They are applied to new building and also to extensions, material alterations, and
certain changes of use of existing buildings.
A building byelaw is a local law framed by a subordinate authority. It channelizes to
achieve the concepts & policies outlined in the Master plans of the city, in order to give
a particular ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER to the city.
A byelaw is a document containing standardized requirement for the design &
construction of most types of building and also for planning cities. Byelaws regulate
building construction & building use in order to protect the health, safety, comfort &
efficiency of the occupant of the building in a micro level and of the city in a macro
level.

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OBJECTIVES AND NEED OF BYELAWS
 Building byelaws allow disciplined and systematic growth of buildings, towns and
cities.
 To make it easier to pre-plan the building activities.
 Gives guidelines to the designing Architect or engineer.
 Helpful while following various zones according to NBC for various types of
buildings to keep it precise & allotted location for better development.
 Prevents disorganized development without any resemblance to the
development of the area as a whole.
 Help to achieve good and feasible road network because of designing of building
within frame of byelaws, which is good for city planning.
 Gives safety (to humans who work & most importantly live in the buildings)
against fire, noise, and health hazard, structural failure (may be due to natural
calamity).
HISTORY OF BYELAWS
Building codes have a long history. The earliest known written building code is included
in the Code of Hammurabi, which dates from circa 1772 BC. The book
of Deuteronomy in the Hebrew Bible stipulated that parapets must be constructed on
all houses to prevent people from falling off.
The Code of Hammurabi is a Babylonian legal text composed c. 1755–1750 BC. It is the
longest, best-organized, and best-preserved legal text from the ancient Near East. It is
written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian, purportedly by Hammurabi, sixth
king of the First Dynasty of Babylon.

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CASE STUDY OF CITIES
PARIS
PARIS: VIEW OF THE PEOPLE “A work of art doesn’t always involve a canvas or a block
of marble. A great city can be a work of art, a collective and complex art, but a superior
art.” “most of them… exhibit an almost wearisome uniformity of style” “our great
Parisian streets, like the Boulevard Magenta, produce a fatiguing impression of
monotony, with their building facades strictly uniform and rigorously aligned, with a
frigid and self- effacing decoration, without improvisation or movement” “in Paris, the
city of beauty, which is to say of order and harmony, in Paris, the city of good taste,
elegance and distinction, we cannot allow to be constructed, absolutely by chance and
whim, the fantasies, perhaps fortunate and perhaps also monstrous, of architects and
owners. It involves the interest of France, and I would say even of the civilized world.”
PARIS: CHANGING REGULATIONS 17th Century onwards, Parisian building facades have
been regulated. The laws and regulations governing the facades have evolved through
the years, but no significant change was made to the regulations till 1902. New set of
regulations passed in 1902 allowed the architects the freedom to design within an
overall spatial envelope or cabaret. The resulting street facades were disastrous with
upper stories being adorned with decorations and lower stories being simpler in form –
the whole balance seemed to have been lost… “it looks as though we wanted to
express defiance not only of good taste and good sense, but also of the laws of
equilibrium” Following this, strong pressures were observed to have 1902 regulations
abolished.
PARIS : CHANGING REGULATIONS By the 1920’s, the issue of ornamentation had
resolved itself but the commission felt the need to regulate the building facades
especially with respect to that of building height and overhangs – as they considered
abandonment of ornamentation only as a passing fashion. Building heights were once
again regulated and restored back to the same order as before. New comprehensive
building code was put into effect in 1961 and incorporated in Plan deurbanize Director

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of 1967. The report concluded: … the aspect of city will change. One will no longer go
about between parallel walls, in these corridors, the streets, but in spaces alternating
with buildings and greenery. Outside of certain streets, where a controlled architecture
remains valuable for its high quality or historic aspect, facades will present a variety of
views. Housing will be separated from the noise, commercial centers will be grouped in
low buildings easily accessible to pedestrians…
PARIS: CONCLUDING REMARKS Flaws of 1967 were addressed when the regulations
were once again revised in 1974. Despite the regulations embodying a growing
measure of conservatism, in a broader townscape, large parts of the city were totally
exempted from any controls. This is especially seen in the post-war development.
Regulations generally have a negative impact and no amount of control can ensure a
good design. And thus, a permanent set of building control cannot be produced
because pressures of growth and change are always going to be present.

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EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT BYELAWS FROM A
PERTICULAR CITY ACROSS INDIA
JAIPUR: THE PINK CITY, BLACK AND WHITE LUCKNOW, TRIDENT
LAMPS IN KOLKATA EXAMPLES FROM ACROSS INDIA
 In 1876, the Prince of Wales and Queen Victoria visited India on a tour. Since
pink denotes the color of hospitality, Maharaja Ram Singh of Jaipur painted the
whole city pink in color to welcome the guests. JAIPUR: THE PINK CITY the shop
signage's can also be observed following a similar palette of black and white
colors.
 In Lucknow, branded signage's have given way to common black and white
signage's where all the brands have to follow the common black background and
white fonts signage, although the lettering style is allowed to remain as per
brand standards BLACK AND WHITE LUCKNOW.

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 In a city beautification move under the promise of urban transformation, TMC
government installed 30000 trident lamps in Kolkata which are unique only to
Kolkata and which have made Kolkata one of the best lit cities in the country
TRIDENT LAMPS IN KOLKATA.

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PONDICHERRY:
THE BOULEVARD TOWN
The name ‘Pudducheri’ means ‘new settlement’ which is very well reflected through
the history of the trade town which attracted the British, Portuguese and the French.
• The Treaty of Paris-1783 returned Pondicherry to the French-foundation laying of the
present town.
• The Canal became central to its evolving landscape-a definite line demarcating the
French quarters from the Tamil precincts.
PONDICHERRY: LOOKING BACK the town with enclosure-1739
• A strong enclosure, with curtain walls, bastions, parapets and a ditch all-round the
city.
• Impressive gates were erected to the North and the West, and the streets leading to
these gates became the main arteries of the town. Urban development-French
planning the town of 1816-ruins and desolation.

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• On the site of the fortifications, an outer boulevard was laid out, bordered with trees
in 1824; the extension of the canal towards the north was ordered in 1827, and the
creation of a grand bazar on the present site was decided upon in 1826.
Dutch invasion-1693
• No urbanism, the streets or lanes followed an irregular pattern crisscrossed each
other, without any shape or symmetry.
• There was no town-planning in the native quarters of the town in the western part,
or in the eastern. The planning of a new town (1693-99) .
• Regular geometric layout.
• Rectangular blocks of houses separated by straight streets intersecting at right
angles.
• The layout was a simple structure which corresponded to a functional spatial
distribution of the different Indian communities (Brahmins, weavers, merchants,
farmers, craftsmen).
PONDICHERRY: PRESENT the town today
• The French or the White town developed along the coastline around the Government
Square surrounded by stately government buildings, while residential buildings
interspersed by institutional buildings extended on either side and along the beach.
• The Tamil or the Black town on the other hand, the commercial streets were
considerably modified after the transfer of territory with the construction of a number
of new buildings. Boulevards.

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• A pleasant promenade, of 24 m wide, lined with a double row of trees, on both sides.
• These broad avenues round the town, oval in shape, lined mostly with modern
buildings, constitute striking marks on the urban landscape.
Secondary streets-French town
• The streets, mostly residential, are lined with a large number of administrative
buildings and colonial houses with their principal facade often perpendicular to the
street and extended by the boundary wall of an interior garden.
PONDICHERRY: STREETS Main streets
• The streets reflect the grid plan that determines the particular geometry of the town.
• They separate large rectangular blocks of houses and, except in the Muslim quarter,
they intersect at right angles. Secondary street-Indian town
• The streets are lined with a variety of different types of houses.

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CONCLUSION:
 In a city what changes continuously is its human fabric and what remains constant is
its physical identity. French a firm believer of the above notion have made an attempt
to conserve the physical identities of their cities amidst high end criticism through
strict building regulations since time immemorial.
 The building control set an orderliness in the urban fabric, restricting haphazard
developments which prevailed through modernism; Paris being a classic example.
Though criticisms from architects, artists and men of taste-the Modernists brought
about some changes in the building control. It was believed the control apparently
turned the cities facades monotonous and frigid. The concept of building control was
detrimental to urban richness-Architectural militarism was what dominated the
buildings of Paris.
 The urban growth pattern has not left India untouched. The heritage towns designed
with a vision, function and a reflection of its creator are the most suffering. India
witnesses absence of strict building regulations control and an awareness of rich
heritage it has. French ruled town of Pondicherry followed the same ideology as of
Paris but new developments have hampered the heritage city which reflected distinct
French and Tamil architecture styles of building. Initiatives by organizations like
INTACH of sensitizing communities and people and the governing bodies of a city may
make a difference as reflected in cities like Jaipur and Pondicherry. A bottom up
approach, regulations in the policies and above all reclaiming our heritage is the need
of the hour.
 Every building was once new and the radical form may eventually be regarded as an
exemplar of tradition. The physical identities can sustain if and only if the outlooks
change, ugly may become beautiful and rigid and monotonous may become
harmonious and orderly. A city is not an artefact it is a living entity which represents
the people living within it. Thus bylaws for cities is very necessary and important for
smooth functioning of it.

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