Urban Design PORTFOLIO 2018-2020
linda reeba koshy Master of Urban Design (MUD)
cept university, ahmedabad + ensa paris-malaquais, france
Understanding the city studio, Ahmedabad Semester 1 (FOUNDATION)
Studio brief: ‘Understanding the City’ studio aimed to develop intimate understanding of the city and to equip the students with conceptual, methodological, analytical, and communication skills necessary for becoming a professional urbanist. For the studio, the city of Ahmedabad was divided into 156 unique precincts of 1 square kilometre each. Every student was allotted their own precincts on which thematic week long studies were conducted. Site context: Naroda(Precinct 9) which is the subject of this portfolio is moving into a state of rapid redevelopment. The first residents were from post-partition migration and GIDC Industrial estate. Post the initial settling, other large scale growths have been transit driven. Along with the BRTS scheme(2009), AUDA introduced Transit Oriented Zones (TOZ) along the proposed bus corridors. Also the suburban Railway project(2016) passes crosses through Kubernagar which is a part of the precinct. Learnings: Layers of urban fabric like roads, plots, buildings, public spaces, and infrastructure were studied on site. Site surveys helped understand the housing conditions, household expenditure, travel patterns and job availability in the precinct. At regular intervals, the findings from across various precincts in the city were compared. Finally a 2 km stretch of road was selected from the precinct for design, estimation, funding and cost recovery methods. ArcGIS was the main tool used for mapping and analysis.
Site introduction
Administrative zones of Ahmedabad Sardargram Railway Station Police Station
Kubernagar Chharanagar Market
Kubernagar Govt. School Beggars Home
Prem Market
National Handloom Corporation AMC Waste Yard
Mohannagar Society
Urvasi Bungalow
GSRTC Central Workshop
AMC Water Supply Station
da
line
aro
ol-N Nar
Rail
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AMC Storm water Pumping Station
Small scale Industries
BRTS Station
AMC Park
Ward A
Patiya Circle
Hussain Nagar
Satellite survey
Interpreting the footprints Larger plots of with mid rise buildings. Might be of commercial nature as it is near a wide road.
Metal roofed sheds along the road. Could be of industrial or commercial use.
Medium rise apartment blocks or public housing with large setbacks and access roads.
A low rise dense settlement without defined road layout. Blocks can be as little as 3m wide.
Neighbourhood of larger plots, setbacks,bungalows and green cover. Roads are wider with parking spaces.
Smaller rectangular plots with low rise residential buildings. Plot sizes of 10X15m and 12X15m.
Land characteristics Land ownership and use
Land use distribution
Government owns 24% of the land in the precinct. The Central Workshop, police station and beggars home occupy large tracts of land. This land is unlikely to undergo any transformation.
43% of the land use in the precinct is residential. This includes plotted housing societies, row housing, mid rise apartments and slums. 20% of land is under industrial.
Vacant Government lands in the precinct have been allotted for EWS housing. Older buildings are being redeveloped to newer typologies.
Government - 24% Private - 76%
In recent years, public utility buildings like waste yard and water pumping station have been built to provide better infrastructure for the residents.
Residential - 43% Industry - 20% Commercial - 3.6%
Street analysis Condition of carriageways
Pedestrian accessibility
Bungalow Narol-Naroda Road Highway Maharishi Prem Market Dayanad Road Road
0.6 metre on either side 1 metre on either side
The arterial roads is found to be in excellent condition. High-income housing societies have good internal roads. Older row housing and apartments have very poor roads.
Street sections
12 m commercial street
1 metre on one side
Of the 25% of streets that have pedestrian paths, almost none have adequate width. They are discontinuous with public amenities like police kiosks and toilets. In market areas, shopfronts spill onto the paths forcing people to walk on the streets.
6 m residential street
4.5 m industry street
Cross section of 45 metre street (BRTS Lane)
pedestrian
Traffic study Traffic flow diagram at Patiya Circle The junction is an uncontrolled one. The lines in the traffic flow diagram represents PCU per hour. The readings were taken at peak hour time of 0530 pm on a weekday.
8866 vehicles per hour
Pass through the point during peaks hour traffic
Conflict points
12 conflict points have been mapped by studying traffic movement.
Pedestrian crossings
The yellow zones indicate marked pedestrian crossings and the red lines show where the pedestrians actually cross.
Travel behaviour Mode share 48% of trips are by 2 wheeler. Most households in Naroda own one or more twowheelers. Only middle income households own cars. Most children walk to schools. This is possible because there are government schools as well as more expensive private schools available very close to residential areas. Households surveyed rarely rely on buses for daily trips. Low incomes groups prefer to live close to places of work and walk or cycle daily. Autos are also an economic option as they ply on share basis.
Catchment zone for BRTS Within the precinct there is only one BRTS station at Patiya circle. Majority of Prem market and Ward A lies within a 10 minute walk of the bus station. Residents from other parts rely on autos to ferry them to the bus station.
Destinations based on gender Mode share by purpose
Trips made by men
Trips made by women
Destinations based on income
Low income group
Middle income group
Public realm Activity mapping
This is the only public park in Precinct 9. If shared by the entire population of the precinct, it gives 0.06 sqm per person. The plot used to be a large open playground till 2008 after which AMC Water Pumping station was built and remaining plot was redeveloped into a park. The reduced size of the park means that there is no playground for older children. These activities spill out into the nearby residential streets and railway track. Once suburban rail starts functioning they cannot continue playing there. The roads around the railway station will also become busier. So where will these children go?
Population density
G+7 building under construction
Low rise semi-detached development
Low rise row housing
Industrial sheds
Building Height
G+3 Apartment Low rise slum Blocks housing
Population Density
193 people per hectare The precinct consists mostly of old low-rise housing units. The plotted developments and row houses have a G+1 typology. Older apartment buildings are all G+2 with no elevators. Large open areas are found to be government owned. For example, the police station has large unused grounds and GSRTC workshop has open land used for parking broken down buses. Newer apartments are G+4 or taller and follow building norms. It is also common for new apartments to have commercial space in the ground floor. Buildings along the BRTS corridor has higher allowed FSI and are thus taller.
Elements of urban design Semester 2
Studio Brief: The studio focused on the study and representation of the key urban elements in cities. The premise is that building types, urban blocks, streets and public open spaces form the key elements that come together to make any functional urban space. The semester was divided into five modules, each culminating with an exhibition of the outcome. These modules focused on effectively capturing and communicating the spatial qualities of the urban built environment. The final exercise set in Gandhinagar involved the application of the abilities and skills developed in the studio. Sites: Unique sites were chosen locally as well as internationally as per the module requirements. The first modules even attempted to compare building types/urban blocks/public realm in Indian locations with an international example. The final module was done in Gandhinagar Sector 22. Learnings: The exercises in each module enabled us to study each urban element and how they contribute to the scale, form, character and their relationship with the larger urban context. The learning outcome of the studio were to prepare design drawings to graphically communicate the key spatial characteristics of an existing urban built environment with focus on its elements and prepare a design for a given urban area in the form of a framework plan, design analysis and 3-dimensional illustration to represent the design.
Urban blocks Navrangpura, Ahmedabad
Quiet block core Residential layout with through fare streets.
Porous block corners The plots at the corner do not have compound walls allowing activities to spill out into the streets.
Nonporous block corner Building raised above road level cutting off spillover. Blind corner discourages movement. Porous street edge Buildings with large front setback and no compound walls create an active street edge.
Porous block corner
There is no boundary wall between buildings. It makes it an ideal place for people to gather, food vendors to park and for kids to play.
Porous street edge
The intersection a quieter residential street with the busy commercial street is an interesting place in the block. Mostly occupied by parking but also shoppers stopping at the street food vendor and a few children playing on the street.
Urban blocks
Building footprints
Non-porous block corner Strong street corner created by a building placed at the edge of the plot.
20 0
80 40
mts 160
Block perimeter
Built v/s Open
Smallest 262 m Largest 740 m
Built Space 33% Public Open Space 11% Private Open Space 56%
110 m
33%
86 m
207 m
48 m
56%
11%
Public realm Cheonggyecheon, Seoul
Cheonggyecheon river restoration project is a 11 kilometre public space in downtown Seoul. The selected 200 metre stretch is at the start of the river and lies 4.6 metre below road level. Buildings surrounding the project are mostly offices with commercial spaces in the ground floor. In summers colourful umbrellas shade it from the heat and raise awareness about global warming. In November, the waters are lit up for the annual lantern festival that draws large crowds.
Summer day
Winter day
25 0
100 50
25 0
100 50
mts 200
mts 200
Reimagining Sector 22 of Gandhinagar
Design strategies Housing
Commercial
Landmark Building
Apartment blocks Commercial Tall landmark of mixed typologies area around the building to act as a to replace the central park node along with the existing bungalows existing temples and hospital
Mixed Edge Mixed use buildings located at the edges of the sector to be flexible to market changes
New building typologies Introduced to increase population density
Pedestrian trails that link public spaces
Fragmented public open spaces and Institutes retained and strengthened
Design objectives 1. Safe and walkable streets with good street envelope 2. Increasing legibility of neighbourhood 3. Easy way finding through the sector 4. Comfortable environment that promotes activities 5. Provide variation in housing typologies 6. Increase population density of sector 7. Create an open space hierarchy and network
Proposed design of Sector 22 Neighbourhood park and amenities located at the core of the residential urban block
Central open space with sports fields, party lawn, garba ground and recreational facilities
Landmarks at the entries which lend identity to the neighbourhood and aid in way finding
Commercial buildings at the core of the sector with pedestrian streets
Pedestrian trails link the landmarks and neighbourhood parks to the centre
Street detail
2 The street gives priority to pedestrian movement along with cyclists. The street width was reduced to discourage fast moving vehicles.
1 Pedestrians paths widen to accommodate street vendors at high traffic areas such as the Polytechnic College.
1. Primary road along polytechnic college with a view of the landmark building
2. Pedestrian priority streets
Open space detail
1 The tall apartments blocks surround the park giving it a strong sense of enclosure
2 The neighbourhood park contains jogging track, sports field, play equipment for children of various ages and water features for play.
1. Trail leading to the core of the sector
2. Tall apartment blocks surrounding the park
Masterplan studio, Ahmedabad Semester 3
Studio brief: The studio is aimed at learning the key aspects involved in preparing a large scale urban design master plan. The emphasis of the studio was on exploring the design process through various concepts and approaches, achieving a detailed design resolution, evolving an appropriate development model and to prepare a persuasive communication and representation strategy for the master plan. The studio uses the Gujarat Township Policy as the basis for initiating the development. Through the studio the students will prepare a three – dimensional urban design proposal for this area with proposed massing, height, densities, orientations, grids and blocks, movement routes both for pedestrians and vehicles and the location and role of public open spaces in the plan. Site context: The site is of 560 acres near Shela village, which is in the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. It is in close proximity to industrial layouts including those of Sanad GIDC and Changodar. It is also close to the proposed freight corridor. Similar to the trends of development along SP Ring Road, this site too has the potential for a township. Learnings: One of the early challenges of the studio was to Identify a clientele based on the context of the site and the city. A unique vision has to be created for the township that can help with marketing the project to these clients. The drawings produced as the result of the design exercise had to be appealing to potential buyers as well.
Site study The site is in the outskirts of Ahmedabad city with a total area of 560 acres (226 hectares). Access is via National Highway 947 or SP ring Road. The area around the site is rapidly transforming from agriculture to high density residential townships. The road alignment as per the Development Plan have not been realized fully. The Dholka branch of Narmada canal runs along the length of the site and can be used to bring people to the township. There are pockets of dense natural vegetation which can be retained to increase the green cover.
AMC GUDA AUDA DFC Urban Ring road Interim road SP Ring road
Shela Gam
road
a bra
SP Ring
Dholk
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MICA
anal
nch c NH 947 Telav Gam
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800 mts
Context based strategies - Road
Proposed city road network
Modifying the city road network
The proposed road layout by AUDA divides the township into disconnected parcels by 45 metre wide roads. These ring roads also bring huge development potential so they have to be used to our advantage.
The DP road alignment has been modified to restrict the development to a smaller parcel. This will also enable to developer to have an area of higher intensity as well as contrasting residential neighbourhoods.
Context based strategies - Green
Narmada branch canal
Green cover
The Dholka branch of Narmada canal runs through the length of the site. A 2.5 kilometre long green spine can be proposed here to create a unique identity for the township.
The site has pockets of dense green cover which can be retained. The central one as a central park and the north-western seasonal water catchment could be a wooded lake.
Vision
Unit level : Private greens linked to public greens
Block level : blocks connected by greens
Site level : Site wide green trails activated by amenities
City level : Greens leading to destinations
Masterplan
Canal front luxury apartments
Flagship school
Amenities to activate the green trails
City level amenities
Canal street for shopping and recreation Commercial office complexes along the highway
0 100 200
400
800 mts
1.45 Global FSI
Delayering the masterplan Greens
0 100 200
400
800 mts
Building use
0 100 200
400
800 mts
Amenities
Commercial - Offices
Public Parks
Mixed use residential
Greens
20%
of township area Greens is an umbrella term that includes parks, gardens, plazas, canal front, sports grounds, wooded areas and amenity spaces. Within each block, there is a park with an attached amenity centre. These centres will have facilities such day care centre and kindergarten school, gym, indoor sports, senior citizen centres, and community halls. The greens and amenities are linked by a network of pedestrian parks called ‘linear trail parks’ which provides safe passage within the block and also interconnects blocks. It has been ensured that all residential units are within a 5 minute walk from a neighbourhood amenity centre or park. City level amenities such as convention centre, sports complex, hospital and flagship school are located close to the major city roads for good connectivity.
Public/Institutional Residential - MIG LIG Residential - HIG Residential - SEWSH
The building uses have been assigned based on the hierarchy of road network, location and potential for development. The 45m and 36m primary roads will have large volume of traffic and bring the city to the township. Mixed use residential buildings are planned here due to the development potential brought by the road. A row of commercial office buildings are placed along the National Highway and could host corporate offices for the industries in the region. High end residences have been placed at unique locations such as canal front, lake front and wooded areas that will add to its value. The canal front has mixed use residential towers with retail in the lower floors to create a shopping street experience.
Urban form strategy
Envisioning an urban block
Neighbourhood amenity centre with facilities such as day care, gym, halls, or indoor sports
Linear trail parks creating a continuous pedestrian network through the block
Private back yards have been consolidated to create large central green spaces
High density housing next to the neighbourhood park. residents have direct access to greens
Urban design guidelines
1. Facade
2. Heights
- Building to be aligned to the street edge to create a continuous facade - Open areas are to abut the linear trail park at the rear of the plot to create consolidated greens
- Buildings which directly face the neighbourhood park is allowed to a higher height
3. Connecting to greens
4. Green edge
- A public pedestrian trails has to be provided at a minimum interval of 100 metres to connect to the linear trail park at the centre of the parcel
- The lower floors of the building should setback to form terraces. Ground floor rooms which open to the greens should have common building amenities like gyms, sports rooms, day care etc
5a. Street edge - Retail
5b. Street edge - Residential
- Up to three floors can be built to street edge for a pedestrian scale street experience and there can be street plazas. Entry to residential areas can be on raised plinth for emphasis, privacy or contrast from the business front
- Ground floor should be on a plinth to protect the privacy of the residents. Large windows and balconies overlooking street will increase the feeling of safety. There is to be no compound walls.
Life in the township A. Linear trail parks
B. Lake front park
C. Canal street
A. Linear trail parks connect the residents in the block to the neighbourhood parks and amenity centres. It is a safe shaded space for pedestrians and activities. It will act as a public extension to the private backyards of the residential units. The linear park will have seating areas, play spaces, sand boxes, and pop up kiosks which will further encourage people to use the trails. B. The low lying areas in the site act as a seasonal water retention zone. A lake has been created here to manage the storm water in the township. The lake front will also be a recreational leisure space for the residents.
C. The canal front has a kilometre long green leisure spine along it. It has two promenades, an upper one for strolling and a lower one as a shopping street. They are connected by slopping greens where visitors can relax. There are break spaces between the blocks which will host seasonal exhibitions and performances. The buildings have residences in the upper levels so the canal front will remain active throughout.
Studio International Franco-Belge at Roubaix, France Semester 4 (EXCHANGE)
Studio brief: The studio was set in Roubaix, a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a mono-industrial commune which grew rapidly in the 19th century from its textile industries. Post the de-industrialisation in the 1970s the city is in a state of rapid urban decline with huge socio-economic, religious, as well as racial issues. A project has to be formulated to suit the unique context of the city that could aid in the urban renewal, create jobs or generate an income for the residents or alternatively, create a dialogue about the city that will impact its image. Site context: Roubaix is one of the poorest cities in France with a 34% rate of unemployment. Based on studies of the city, the neighbourhood of Sainte-Elisabeth was chosen as the project location. While the housing stock is older, it is in relatively good condition and provide affordable housing options for residents. Learnings: It was interesting to challenge the existing of development models of the city of Roubaix. Old housing blocks are routinely torn down and replaced by luxury apartments which the old residents cannot afford. Or the land is left vacant and overgrown for decades adding to the urban decay. The project formulated for the studio focused on uplifting a neighbourhood without displacing its community.
Lille Hauts-de-France region
France
Roubaix Lille
Lille metropole
Roubaix
Sainte-Elisabeth neighbourhood
Neighbourhood study
The neighbourhood has limited of public green or leisure spaces. The commercial stores are limited to one street. There are few corner or convenience stores. There is no vacant lots available for new projects unless existing housing stocks are demolished. The industrial buildings have been mostly converted into warehouse, startups and offices. But employees from these places prefer to stay in Lille and commute to Roubaix. The neighbourhood has great potential as a residential area because of its proximity to the city centre, tramline and universities.
Intention Create public facilities in the poorer and marginalized communities of Roubaix that will have a positive impacts on the quality of life of the residents. The interventions should strengthen the fabric and identity of the neighbourhood.
Strategies
Position Retain
Space available in the centre of the blocks can be used for the project.
Old houses removed
Yard can be used for insert
Small projects
Project - Student Housing - Universities in close proximity to the neighbourhood - Students will bring diversity and activate the neighbourhood - Economic benefits to local businesses - Integrate students with local residents
Concept plug-in student home
shared roof community space
long yard
existing house
Modular Plug-in design Modular parts for easy assembly
Roof additions for yard privacy
Multiple combinations for variation in plug-in typology
Upgrading old houses using plug-ins
Pilot Project Ground floor plan Entry to rooftop from street Corner block - cafe - bike parking - laundry - kitchen - gym - community hall
dilapidated houses demolished to create activity spaces
Community garden in vacant plots
Pilot project Roof plan
shared roof gallery/gathering space
Urban Design PORTFOLIO 2018-2020
linda reeba koshy lindareeba@gmail.com +91 9739739760