‘(Re)thinking Smart, (Re)building Scale in a Digital Urban Age’

The heritage city of Varanasi has had a relatively stable urban form and fabric which attracts tourists and visitors from all around the world. The modern day witnesses a surge in the large-scale transformation of these historic sites through the concepts of urban conservation and preservation along with a touch of modernity and technology driven urbanism. The city of Varanasi is a living example of how urban development initiatives over a period of time have created non-reversible, permanent and everlasting socio-cultural impacts on the citizens as well as on the urban fabric of the city. Several questions revolve around ‘what heritage needs to be preserved’, ‘moments in the planning manifestations in the city’, ‘what is present on ground and what is present on paper’. Modernising an ancient city like Varanasi surely comes with its own set of challenges, especially when it comes to the recent Smart City Mission which involves the use of technology to preserve its heritage, amalgamative culture while also providing the necessary infrastructure facilities to its residents. This paper intends to look at heritage as living history to identify the relevant shifts in the urban planning process for appreciating and understanding patchwork urbanism in historic cities.