Re imagining public spaces in Indian cities

Reimagining Public spaces in our city Revitalization of Vashi Station Node

Sonali Praharaj

Graduate Thesis, 2012 Sir JJ College of Architecture Mumbai University

Revitalization of Vashi Station Node- Summary

Graduate Thesis

Outstanding Student Thesis Architect and Interiors India, December 2012

Jury comments: “The winner was a project on transition space between a railway station and rest of the city. The student dealt it with a nice scale, it was urban yet contextual.

The way a complex programme was dealt with was very well thought-and could actually work as a significant urban intervention to improve the function of a railway station likeVashi.

It was good quality drawings and pictures. “

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Graduate Thesis

Revitalization of Vashi Station Node- Summary

Best of Thesis

Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai University Faculty guide: “The product grew out of the current dynamics as induced by growth patterns of the mega-city of Mumbai and its extended Sister City of Navi (New) Mumbai. The intensity of research base, typically in case of Sonali’s topic remained most grueling and intense on account of the diverse nature of requirements. This led her into researching aspects of how urban patterns become drivers to induce changing patterns of urban development and prescribe resolution towards an enhanced environment.”

Public Exhibitions:

Publications

Kurula Varkey Form,

Published on Thrivingreen,

CEPT University, 2013

Online plaform for urban issues

Best Thesis,

IES College, Mumbai University, 2013

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Revitalization of Vashi Station Node- Summary

Graduate Thesis

SITE LOCATION - Vashi station forecourt, Navi Mumbai SITE EXTENT - 8.2 Ha/ 20.75 Acres

Existing station and the foreground of the station

INTRODUCTION In and around us, within the thriving metropolis, the journey from home to work and work to home becomes the daily monotony.

Home and work becomes the two defined enclosures in which we, inhabit. The journey time being the lone way we interact with our city and the people. If not the journey, does the city give us the option to experience it? Is there any place, outside the defined enclosures, where we can reach out to the people, the city and more importantly to satisfy a psychological emptiness within us? Can in anyway, Architecture considering all its dimensions, act as a pronouncement of this void at the city and human scales, as well as provide a place of introspection in which we as individuals can make an attempt to fill up this void?

Taking this thought forward, in an age of urban sprawl, the thesis is a question as to where can architecture play a role in creating and activating public spaces of our city and how can these spaces be integrated with the daily routines of people, which can be then experienced physically and visually with ease.

PRESENT SCENARIO The site is the station forecourt of Vashi station, and the immediate adjoining areas. Presently, the forecourt mainly functions as the parking, small food kiosks and the bus stop.

An area of 8 Ha, the site is edged by Vashi railway station to one side, commercial, shopping malls and regional community centers to the other sides. The main intent of the present site was to hold the above mentioned functions for the public, which mainly lies on the edge of the site and in the centre, provide pedestrian pathway to reach the other side of the site, avoiding the roads for pedestrian movement. People prefer using the vehicular road for their everyday movement as they are more habituated with functions around it. Moreover, as for the pedestrian axis, there is as such no destination- a person is led to another vehicular road. As pedestrian congest the road, this also led to problems with the vehicular movement. So, lack of functions within the site makes the classical plaza place unresponsive and (therefore) underutilized.

AIMS & OBJECTIVES 1. To promote and maximize pedestrian linkage of the existing fabric.

2. Reactivate the station forecourt: To bring in the influx of more activity and entertainment into the vast expanse of the space.

3. To let people experience in all the dimensions, what their city can give to them.

4. Create a public forum for the public which not only follows the traditional definition of public plazas and forums, but follows a holistic sustainable development of the space-which gives people what they require, rather than forcing them into a defined public space.

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Graduate Thesis

Revitalization of Vashi Station Node- Summary

Visualization illustrating the proposed project

PROPOSAL The final product is seen as a model which not only gives solution to the issues of the existing site, but also includes activating the public space for the people and the city. A place where necessary, recreational and social activities takes place simultaneously – hence giving the place a multidimensional character. Different functions and activities are integrated through a layered and contextualized approach.

Step 1: Tame congestion Segregating the vehicular and pedestrian traffic – The station entry/ exit points are distributed to ground and lower ground level. The vehicular movement is on the lower ground floor, and the pedestrian on ground. There are intermediate ramps connecting the two.

Step 2: Reconnecting Fabric The pedestrian area is maximized, extending the pedestrian linkages to connect the most frequent destinations. The edges of the site are designed uniquely responding to the context.

Step 3: Creating destination Existing functions are reallocated and new functions are introduced to activate the area-There is a hierarchy of functions which starts from the station end which holds the everyday functions like food kiosks, craft markets and extends to the community spaces like library, children’s museum, community centre etc. to the other end of the site. Accordingly the existing functions are reallocated.

Step 4: Weaving the site through Design The design volume grows from one end to the other end of the site, visually connecting them. Maintaining the flatness of the site and enhancing the character as an open space, the design weaves the functions, green spaces, and fragments of the open plaza together.

Step 5: Green Linkage Green spaces are experimented and are distributed throughout the site in the form of elevated gardens, terrace gardens, linear greenways, and lower ground level courts along with green ground cover. Aerial Greenways marks the direct pathways leading to the destinations.

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Revitalization of Vashi Station Node- Summary

Graduate Thesis

SITE PLAN

CONCLUSION The concern of public spaces in Mumbai and its suburbs has always been a matter of concern. Navi Mumbai, extension of Mumbai – holds in itself the aspirations of a better city, not just planning wise but also giving the residents, a healthy and sustainable city to live in. Vashi railway station being the gateway for Navi Mumbai, the development here in terms of city planning and architecture becomes the model for rest of the city.

The revitalization of Vashi forecourt hence integrated urban design, landscape planning and architectural design, which helps transform an unresponsive, (and therefore) underutilized, classical plaza space into a vibrant, layered, contextualized domain that forms a model example for treating “open” spaces within dense, built-up urban settings in our city context.

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Graduate Thesis

Revitalization of Vashi Station Node- Summary

Relooking at the central axis of the urban space

A combination of activities- formal and semi-formal

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