Analysis Of Spatial Configuration and Functional Efficiency of House Layouts of Various Typologies In Ahmedabad

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to look at how spatial configuration affects the functional effectiveness of different housing layouts in Ahmedabad.This city is UNESCO’s first world heritage city in India, and has been chosen for this study because it has mixed types of traditional and contemporary archi tecture. The city’s architecture has experienced the most progressive changes with the influence of western architecture. The literature study comprises of three parts. The first, being the study of the relationship between spatial configuration and functional efficiency of the house layouts, and understanding the charac teristics of spatial configuration and their impact on functional efficiency of a house layout based on the parameters of Space Syntax. The second, being a study of the house layouts of various typologies namely pol housing, row housing and bungalows in Ahmedabad city through a comparison based on the changes in their configurations. The analysis realizes modifications with time, considering the historical, political and social events that influence the design of the layouts and zoning of spaces and activities, etc. The indicators of Space syntax that contributed in measuring functional efficiency are Mean Depth of space (MD), The real relative asymmetry of space (RRA), the Difference factor of space(H*), Space Link ratio and Space-Type. They are analyzed using the Space Syntax theory by applying a software - A Graph which provides quantitative results. This is used to compare house layouts of each typolo gy. The numerical results prove the impact that spatial configuration has on the functional efficiency of the house layouts. The typologies of row houses are realized to be the most functionally efficient after analysing using the methodology. The results supports the hypothesis that argues that spatial configuration affects the functional efficiency of a house layout.