Mohan Moorti Panta 
on
Kathmandu’s Urban Open Spaces: A Socio-historic Perspective

Open spaces in an urban settlement exist in the form of typological diversities and hierarchical structures. Their forms, contents, functions, and distributions patterns are the expression of the specific characteristics of urban culture. Open spaces have an evolutionary history and exhibit planned configurations which can be understood not only through spatial analysis of the urban structure but also with the study of the town’s urban history.

While open spaces in various forms are shared by families, clans and communities, the squares situated strategically in town centres are shared by the larger urban community. They function as a gathering platform for the neighbourhood as well as the urban community at large.  These spaces are linked in a continuous hierarchy that exhibit a sequence reflecting the nature of urban life – moving from private to public, or from public to private.

This lecture focuses on open spaces of the historic urban core areas of the Kathmandu Valley, highlighting the social and historical dimension of urban open spaces, to explain the present physical configuration and fabric of its historic town settlements.

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 Mohan Moorti Panta is currently Professor and Head of Department in Postgraduate Department of Urban Design and Conservation at Khwopa Engineering College. He is the author of Stupa and Swastika-Historical Urban Planning Principles of Kathmandu Valley Towns and has contributed numerous articles in national and international journals.

Prof Pant earned his PhD (2002) and completed Postdoctoral Research (2004) from Kyoto University and worked in Town Planning Division of Uji Municipality, Japan, for four years. He has a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Tongji University, Shanghai.