oeuvres | vidhya mohankumar
night view
built form framework
CEANNT STATION, GALWAY, IRELAND
site plan
Galway (Irish: Gaillimh, meaning ‘stony river’) is a medieval city in the west of Ireland. It is renowned for its vibrant lifestyle and numerous festivals which attract scores of visitors and have made it the fastest growing city in Ireland. In developing the urban design strategy, the priority of integrating various modes of transport was coupled with an overriding ambition to create a beautiful, sustainable urban quarter worthy of Galway’s Heritage and capable of amplifying and enriching the image of Galway. Key project aims include the connection of the city to the water and the establishment of a network of linked streets and public spaces including connection and interaction with the adjacent Eyre Square. The project includes the delivery of a world class multi-modal transport interchange which reflects the growing need of movement, interaction, and connectivity. While there is an intensification of integration between train, bus and taxi services, the proposed enhanced “hub” will synchronise these in a holistic fashion with park and ride customers, pedestrians and cyclists.
built form study
ARKLOW ROCK HARBOUR, IRELAND
site plan Arklow (An t-Inbhear M贸r in Irish, meaning Great Estuary) is a historic town located in County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland. Founded by the Vikings in the ninth century, Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 rebellion. It is now a thriving commuter town. The vision sets out a strategy for the transformation of the dramatic Arklow Rock site into a new mixed-use and integrated Harbour District that would extend the town centre eastwards towards the coastline and the Irish Sea. The harbour project will improve access for all to the coastline and will include a living environment with a resident population and supporting community and neighbourhood facilities. MOLA envisaged that the harbour will provide a focus for leisure activity in the form of a new marina for 300 berths, associated landside activities and sheltered swimming beaches.
proposed development with surrounding development
LANDS AT PACE - DUNBOYNE, IRELAND
site linkages
slope analysis
site drainage patterns
proposed development and land use
With the re-opening of the Pace rail line and the completion of the new M3 Navan-Kells motorway, Pace will become a multi-modal transport interchange of critical importance to the long term sustainable development and economic potential of Meath, a place where road meets rail and public transport users interface with private car transport. The Commuter rail service will terminate in the new Docklands Station in Dublin City Centre. The commuter rail station proposed for Pace will be accompanied by a park and ride facility for 1,500 cars and more. The proposed development at Pace-Dunboyne seeks to deliver a new model for sustainable urban development and urban living along the transport corridors.
ROSE SQUARE, TBILISI, GEORGIA
Rose Square in Tbilisi, renamed after Georgia’s Rose Revolution of 2003, is where the country’s quest for democracy began after a bloodless revolution that displaced the then corrupt President. The international design competition for the redevelopment of the square sought to establish a new identity for the square based on its historic significance and also called for detailed design proposals for the buildings in and around Rose Square. The proposed development incorporates a retail and cultural centre; an office development; a pavilion building; a hypermarket, new-build parking structures and the redevelopment and landscaping of the square and the adjoining park.
core area - plan showing town centre
proposed Main street
aerial view of proposed civic park
SHANNON LANDS MASTER PLAN, COUNTY CLARE, IRELAND
site plan KEY 9
500m
S m it
Civic Park
Recycling centre
Neighbourhood green Recycling Centre
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Possible alternative route for future elevated heavy rail link
Lin d
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Possible locations for School of Enterprise
Civic Park
Possible locations for Civic/ Arts building Possible location for Primary School
Gr
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Wetland Areas
oad wn R
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Possible location for station for elevated heavy rail
Commercial
hsto
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250m
Lua
Primarily Residential
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Edge of Core Area
Smithstown
N1
Core Town Centre Area
óth An B
Sli
Shannon Free Zone West
reet ain St
Proposed stop for rail line at grade on Main street
M
Proposed Two-way road
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Skycourt
Proposed One-way road Possible future pedestrian/ Cyclist priority street Service/ parking entrance
Tullyvarraga
Existing Pedestrian Bridge Crossing
Tullyglass
Signalized pedestrian crossing Pedestrian/ Cyclist path
Proposed rail at grade
overall framework plan
This Master Plan sets out a physical plan for the future extension of Shannon town centre. Located in the south west of Ireland adjacent to Shannon regional airport, it was Ireland’s first planned ‘new town’ in the 1970’s. Revisiting this vision of urban living and reinterpreting the needs of a 21st century town centre which promotes sustainable modes of accessibility and quality of life measures, the masterplan defines typologies integrating mixed use, civic facilities and commercial space, together with an attractive and durable urban realm and excellent public transport linkage. The master plan sets out a physical plan for the future development of the lands and provides guidelines on building height, architectural design, landscape design and physical and social infrastructure.
PRAHA TROJA
Libensky Bridge
Holesev ic
Gateway Ri v e r V l t a v a
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PRAHA 6
oa aR
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olo
Sok
Centrum
Bridge
HOLESOVICE (PRAHA 7)
Continuum
KARLIN (PRAHA 8)
MALA STRANA (PRAHA 1)
SMICHOV (PRAHA 5)
Invalidovna
3 islands STARE MESTO (PRAHA 1)
ZIZKOV (PRAHA 3)
Libensky Bridge
Holesev ic
NOVE MESTO (PRAHA 2)
Ri v e r V l t a v a
ed Propos
d
Bridge
districts LEGEND Hills
oa aR
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olo
Sok
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Infr River ucture Infrastr Green ture struc Infra ood ourh b h Neig re u struct Infra City
Invalidovna Metro Stop
Invalidovna
City green
infrastructure flows
Neighbourhood park
Libensky Bridge
Holesev ic
HOLESOVICE
Ri v e r V l t a v a
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n_01 ditio Con Blue and Edge reen ate G rface tim te In In
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MALA STRANA
02 n_ r itio nne a nd Co nd M n a ree r E G G e in Th
Propos
KARLIN
Edge Co ndition_ 03 Leisure and Sp ortscap e
Islands
STARE MESTO ZIZKOV
oa aR
vsk
olo
Sok
reen
ric G
Histo
Invalidovna
landscape flows SMICHOV
NOVE MESTO Libensky Bridge
Holesev ic
dsc Pub li
Propos scape
n Land
idge
Metro green
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oa aR
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Metro red
Co nn
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Ri v e r V l t a v a
LEGEND Metro orange
ecti on
ap e
Lan d
sca pe
green space hierarchy
Transitio
Sok Urban Landscape
scape
Land ection
Conn
Rail
ction
Conne
ape
Landsc
Invalidovna
HOLESOVICE
landscape layers Libensky Bridge
Holesev ic
Vlta
va
KARLIN Vlta
va
MALA STRANA
Ri v e r V l t a v a
STARE MESTO
av
ram
Propos
ZIZKOV
Vlt
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aV
tas
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Vltava s
s
Vista
Vista
Vltava
vistas and panoramas
oa aR
vsk
olo
Invalidovna as termini
movement patterns - public transport
Vis
Sok
idge
NOVE MESTO
tas
ista
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SMICHOV
Vis
ROHAN’S ISLAND, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
strategic city route from the site to mala strana (old town) via stare mesto (new town)
1938
1953
1975
2003
The development of Rohansky Ostrov or Rohan’s Island in Prague is touted as the urbanization of the last neglected location within the city. A desolate island with leftover construction booths had to be transformed into a brand new neighborhood. The State for its part had renewed the river basin of the Vltava River to restore Rohan to its original landscape as a separate island. The development comprised of a large mixed use masterplan to create a living, working, and leisure environment alongside the River Vltava and adjacent to the old town in Prague City centre. The proposal was a meaningful response to the historic, landscape and cultural context of the site.
PROJECT DIAMOND, IRELAND
Navan (An Uaimh in Irish, meaning The Cave) is the largest town in County Meath, Ireland. The town is approximately 50 kilometres (31 miles) north west of Dublin City Centre and located in the Boyne River Valley. A key catalyst for the project was a focus on remediation and reuse of Tara mines and its connection with the larger urban footprint of Navan town. MOLA identified a number of key strategic assets in the area including potential rail access to Dublin, the opportunity to create a 65 ha linear park along the River Blackwater and the integration of medium to long term development goals for Navan and the mines with potential for cultural, economic and tourism development uses. The plan proposes an integrated development strategy to include employment generation, land use and transportation, infrastructure and services and phasing and has sought to influence planning and development policy at a national level.
movement patterns - public transport
tourist nodes
characteristic districts
key corridors
Liffey landmarks
Liffey attractors
DUBLIN DOCKLANDS MASTERPLAN 2008
Dublin City has evolved around the great form giver, the river Liffey, and one of the big moves in terms of city reinvention has been the regeneration of the city eastwards out to Dublin bay. Murray O’Laoire architects were the authors of the first Dublin Docklands Area Master Plan in 1997. This far reaching Master Plan, for the future positioning of the city, sought to set out the blueprint for physical and social regeneration of this disconnected and undervalued area. The challenge was to place the Docklands on the mental map of the city and direct and promote development in a strategic manner across the priorities that underpin the Docklands project: accelerating physical rollout of development; achieving genuine architectural legacy; fulfilling the potential of the docklands; realising quality of life and creating a sense of place. The Dublin Docklands has, since the first Master Plan 11 years ago, been transformed from a partly derelict harbour front area to a thriving new mixed use community in the expanding urban core of Dublin City Centre. Since then, the physical, economic and social transformation of the Docklands has continued, extending the city along the river Liffey and attracting major new businesses and thousands of new residents and visitors to the area. Murray O’Laoire Architects were invited back to prepare the Dublin Docklands Area Master Plan 2008 and identified clear city and local scale imperatives for a maturing Docklands area. Among them included connectivity and accessibility, legibility, design, scale and use, conservation, natural heritage, open space landscape and amenity and waterbodies.
nageshwar road
usman road
ranganathan street
prakasam road
T.NAGAR REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL, CHENNAI, INDIA
The vision statement for the redevelopment proposal accounts for T.Nagar as Chennai’s prime shopping district and aims to work with its strengths and assets to enhance its physical environment into a comfortable public realm. The need for T.Nagar to cater to a diverse set of user groups – residents, working class, shoppers and transit users was given utmost priority. Re-linking Panagal Park through a seamless streetscape across the park and reinstating its role as the lung space of the district is one of the key aspects of the proposal as was the need to mitigate the claustrophobia caused by the newly constructed Usman Road flyover. This is achieved by freeing up the space under it as a pedestrian only zone and relocating the Panagal Park market on the eastern side of the park. The concept of pedestrianized and pedestrian priority streets are reaffirmed in the proposal by an integrated public transport network that guarantee ease of movement into the district thereby making cars redundant in the core. Intended to be an ambitious vision requiring the consent and co-operation of all the stakeholders involved, the document is the first step towards enticing everyone into a sense of pride for a district so used yet so neglected.
urban growth boundary
shrinking city
chennai transect
REGIONAL PLANNING STRATEGY FOR GREATER CHENNAI
towards a movement economy The thrust of the proposed Regional Planning Strategy was the establishing of an urban growth boundary as the first step towards reorganizing the planning structure for the CMA. Density studies aided the formulation of a boundary about a 50km radius to demarcate the Metropolis while a Metropolitan Region was defined about a 100km radius. The Metropolitan Region would be as far as the sphere of influence of the city of Chennai would extend. The crux of the proposed Regional Planning Strategy however was about reorganizing the planning structure for the CMA by moving towards an economy based on movement patterns and transit oriented developments (TODs). The 50km and 100km rings would serve as high speed transit corridors connecting all the towns and district headquarters along its length and enable them to develop into independent and self-sustaining TODs. This would further enable consolidation of the urban agglomerations and thereby free up space in between for green belts/ nature preserves. The proposal also prescribed 3 hierarchies under spatial, planning and governance as crucial to the realization of the strategy itself.
INTERVENTION PLAN FOR CHENNAI DOMESTIC AIRPORT
With an objective to upgrade the overall user experience to international standards at the Kamaraj Domestic Terminal, the Intervention Plan demonstrated how much can be achieved with as less change as possible. This is particularly relevant in the face of an embargo on spending limits on the existing terminals in view of the ongoing construction of the new terminals. The driving force of the Intervention plan was the concept of FLY-30 – a concept of enabling a typical passenger to move from drop off zone to boarding gate in not more than 30 minutes. This entailed a series of interventions to provide for such an uninterrupted passenger flow beginning with the designation of zones for specific activities in the airport based on a circulation path for passengers. The movement pattern is further supplemented by locating critical signage and removal of encroachments along the circulation path. A hierarchy for signage aids easy identification of critical signage from other signage. The proposal also accounted for the space freed up by the shifting of the arrival hall to the adjacent building and provided for extended facilities for the passenger to make the waiting time prior to boarding a much more memorable experience.
STREETSCAPE DESIGN FOR L.B. ROAD, CHENNAI, INDIA
Worked on as a pilot project for improving the pedestrian environment in the city of Chennai, the fundamental concept for design was an uninterrupted walkway for pedestrians. As a solution to the unending list of ‘elements’ that typically clutter the pavement thereby making it unusable for pedestrians, the pavement itself was divided into a walkway and utility strip clearly distinguished by variation in material treatment. With the walkway measuring a minimum of 1.2m and utility strip measuring a minimum of 0.6m, a minimum standard width of 1.8m was established for the pavement. Restricting the placement of street furniture and utility boxes along the utility strip ensured a clutter free walkway. The team also designed bus shelters, street signage and pedestrian safety railings as part of the package. An additional merit of the scheme included the fact that all the trees along the stretch were preserved and that the curb lines were reworked to accommodate the trees safely wherever they were present.
vidhyamohankumar@gmail.com