Understanding the City: Ambawadi, Ahmedabad

Ambawadi, situated in central Ahmedabad, west of Sabarmati river, is well connected from different parts of the city. Long before any major settlement began in the area, a 90 acre parcel of land was acquired for the establishment of C.N. Vidyalaya in 1933. A sizable chunk of this is located in the area under study, now defined as C.N. Sports Academy. Apart from this, another institution that found roots here was Shreyas Foundation which began as Shreyas Montessori school started by Leenaben Sarabhai in 1947 at Shahibag. It moved to its present location in Ambawadi in 1963. These two developments defined the growth pattern of this area as other buildings and even internal roads were planned around these. Thus, Ambawadi lays claim to two institutions of a bygone era that are still functional to this day. In the 1987 AUDA plan, this area was already part of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) limits, demarcated predominantly as a residential area (AUDA, 1987). This study looks at a 1 sq. km precinct of Ambawadi over the last twenty years and analyses it layer by layer to understand its transformation via a people centric approach.