Transforming Vernacular: Loss of Villages in Relocations following the Land Acquisition for Noida International Airport

This paper on the transformation of vernacular in villages discusses the case of changes in Rohi. Development-induced land acquisition results in the relocation of settlements and communities and disconnects the dislocated people. This leads to the loss of the vernacular knowledge system, landform, geography, ecology, community, society, and local economics. A case of loss of the vernacular knowledge system and social disarticulation of communities is in progress with the relocation of the five villages by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) for the Noida International Airport (NIA), through the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR Act 2013). Compensation is by the allotment of land in a colony on the outskirts of Jewar. Villagers do not know how to deal with their newly transformed life. In the new planned areas, buildings, and economics are segregated. The land-use controls and bylaws separate built and open spaces based on public and private ownership. Village communities have a social history, and land ownership for ages, and their vernacular-spatial structure is different. This research methodically discusses the communities through vernacular built-form typology by studying houses of surrounding villages and identifying what has gone missing in the new colony. The spatial and use-based organization of the village houses is missing in the new planned colony. Research views the village house as a strength of the people-vocation-land connection, leading to the identification of an Agrorbanization model of sustainable urbanization. Findings help conclude an outline for Agrorbanization that can be used for a better settlement, thus making the resettlement planning more suitable for village life when the R&R Act is used.