Shreeya Ajay Luharuka

AR3596

Informal Urban Stitching as a Response to Imposed Infrastructure: The Case of Ahmedabad.This dissertation investigates the reorganisation of communities in Ahmedabad in response to spatial and social ruptures caused by large-scale infrastructure such as flyovers, metro lines and railway corridors. Taking the city as a self-organising system, the study builds upon morphological analysis, site-specific observations and oral histories to explore how imposed infrastructure disrupts the urban tissue, comprising built form, circulation, and lived experiences. It further investigates the phenomenon of adaptation through informal, bottom-up processes. The study focuses on three case sites where the fragmentation of the urban fabric has produced residual spaces, which over time have become grounds for informal vending, community practices and newly emerging patterns. These appropriations are not random but exhibit identifiable logics informed by proximity, access, memory and functionality. The research constructs an analytical framework that categorises the city into infrastructural lines, urban tissue and urban anchors, and interprets change across four key processes: growth, development, transition and transformation. By applying this framework to Ahmedabad, the study demonstrates that the city’s capacity to adapt is embedded in its everyday practices, not formal planning. Rather than treating residual spaces as voids, the dissertation argues for recognising them as dynamic sites of spatial negotiation. In doing so, it redefines infrastructure not solely as a top-down imposition, but as a catalyst that exposes the city’s ability to reorganise itself. It foregrounds informal resilience as a spatial logic, offering an alternative lens to understand infrastructural impact in rapidly urbanising contexts. Ultimately, the study highlights the persistent duality between formal, top-down development and the informal adaptations that shape everyday urban life in contemporary Indian cities.