Introduction

The dynamics of the Central Business District (CBD) represent many diverse community aspects and informs the relationship between people and place. As in Murphy’s and Vance’s (1954) opinion, the CBD has been “the heart of the city.” With an array of users from full-time residents to business travelers, the CBD is challenged with meeting many diverse needs.

The CBD is characterized by an accumulation of large commercial areas, government offices, and complex tourist-related activities which form the economy of the community. The dominant businesses in this area are typically small businesses that have been within the family for multiple generations. Of Panaji, 75% of commercial activity occurs within the CBD, which has been growing rapidly in the past two decades due to mass urban densification (Haravi 2010). This has given rise to an increase in the number of residents leaving the CBD. With the conversion of residential and single-story dwellings into commercial and high-rise buildings, there is evidence of the CBD failing to meet the needs of its residents.

The morphology of CBD is not static but continuously changing in character. While some areas of the CBD reflect the past in their original site conditions, others show evidence of changes over time. The central areas, and in particular of the historical centers, contain an economic potential that is not sufficiently supported. The architectural heritage and the traditional character of the urban fabric can become productive factors, attractive for the installation of tourist, cultural, commercial activities, and even financial linked to globalization.

With so many stories to listen to, the original team of six narrowed down the scope to two sites where they could conduct area-based initiatives. After several weeks of semi-structured interviews and expert interviews, they conducted a mind-mapping exercise on the street. From this, they identified two more distinct zones/ neighborhood from which to spur more in-depth fieldwork: the Market, and East CBD.

Objectives

These teams approach the work of Urban Ecological Planning and this fieldwork with humility and compassion. When traveling to Panaji, they did not do so as subject experts but rather as practitioners of the built environment who listen carefully to those who live, work, and play in the area. It is the locals who are the experts of the city, and the students are simply the facilitators with the skills to show them what is possible and how to achieve it.

To frame the fieldwork, they developed two objective statements to guide the work:

1) Use human-centered design thinking to get a holistic understanding of the study area and the many communities within it

2) Co-design strategic actions that would move the community towards their expressed desires, either in whole or through incremental steps

As international students with three months in the area, they faced many limitations. Many of these were logistical challenges such as the language barrier, understanding local history, and detailing the complex civic structure. The more significant challenges were gaining trust within the community, finding the hidden processes, and anchoring the project. 19