Project 4 | Vidit Gupta | Level - 3
Contents
9
1.1/Preface
22 2.1/Urdu bazar
10 1.2/Introduction
24 2.2/Social Context
12
26 2.3/Market Competition
1.3/What is street design?
14 1.4/Why is it important?
28 2.4/ Problem and Gap
16
29 2.5/ Design Scope
1.5/Principles of street design
18 1.6/Elements of street design
31
2.6/ Target Audience
34 3.1/Swot Analysis
1
4.1/Conceptualization
36 3.2/Strategy Idea
2
4.2/Explorations
37
3
4.3/Branding
39 3.4/Prposition Support Points
4
4.4/Signage System
41
5
4.5/ Final Renditions
6
4.6/Bibliography
3.3/Unique Selling Proposition
3.5/ Design Brief
Illuminating the intricacies of a street for an Urban Planner and a Communication Designer and what it takes to design a street. Establishing the context for this massive interdisciplinary job. 9
1.1/Preface
10 1.2/Introduction 12
1.3/What is street design?
14 1.4/Why is it important? 16
1.5/Principles of street design
18 1.6/Elements of street design
Phase
1.1 / Preface
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Preface In order to understand what it means to communicate successfully on streets, I studied both the foundation of communication skills and an under- standing of the key elements critical to achieving a good street design. This document provides a framework illuminating the necessary phases and the entire process of crafting a admirable visual communication on streets. Successful street design starts with very fine Urban Planning. This document emphasizes the necessary skills in building these streets and the importance of key principle and elements of street design for a holistic approach towards entire system. When we look at the dynamics of Street Design, it is easy to see why it can be a challenging subject, with a lot of intricacies. But the experience is definitely worth it. The role of a communication designer is quite extensive when it comes to communication on streets with different mediums. It involves a lot of core subjects like typography, color theory, systems design, content design and graphic design majorly, and few other design principles. This document will take you through my entire process.
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1.2 / Introduction
Streets rank amongst the most valuable assets in any city. They not only ensure residents’ mobility, allowing them to travel from one place to another, but also are a place for people to meet, interact, do business, and have fun.
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Introduction Streets rank amongst the most valuable assets in any city. They not only ensure residents’ mobility, allowing them to travel from one place to another, but also are a place for people to meet, interact, do business, and have fun. Streets make a city liveable. They foster social and economic bonds, bringing people together. Decisions about how to allocate and design street space have a tremendous impact on quality of life. Indian cities struggle to reconcile the competing needs of mobility and liveability. As private motor vehicle ownership grows and governments attempt to accommodate the additional vehicles, it is becoming more and more difficult to retain adequate space for the social and economic activities that traditionally have taken place in our streets. Over time, streets have come to function less as social gathering spaces and market areas, and more as conduits for an everincreasing quantity of traffic. One of the key problems of Indian streets is that they are designed from the centreline outwards, without taking the needs of all users into account. The median is marked and a carriageway constructed, and the undefined outer area is left for other purposes. After parking eats away a significant share of this area, pedestrians, trees, utilities, street vending, and social activities jostle for whatever space remains. It is no wonder that in most cases the leftover space is not sufficient to safely and comfortably accommodate these essential functions of the street.
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1.3 / What is street design?
What makes up a complete street? A complete street caters to all users in variety of forms like traffic volumes, adjacent lane uses, street side activities etc.
FIG.1
The 7.5 m street (left) is designed as a shared space. The 42 m street (right) includes a slow-speed shared lane similar to the 7.5 m section, but it also provides separate spaces for mobility, including a cycle track, carriageway, and BRT lanes.
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What is Street Design? Designs focus on improving private motor vehicle mobility by allocating more space to it—often at the expense of other functions of the street. However, the reality that they create is different: pedestrian footpaths may vanish but the pedestrians do not, and the lack of proper pedestrian infrastructure forces people to walk on the carriageway itself. The same is true for cyclists, street vendors, and public transport. Eventually, everyone ends up sharing what is constructed as a motor vehicle carriageway, leading to a reduction in the amount of space that is usable by vehicles. The resulting arrangement is inconvenient, uncomfortable, and unsafe for everyone, including motor vehicle users. So, why not provide adequate space for all users in the first place? All streets that aim to maximize mobility also need separate slow zones. The slow space is for liveability—for people to walk, talk, and interact, for doing business, for children to play. The provision of an adequate slow zone makes it possible for the mobility zone of a street to provide for safe, relatively uninterrupted mobility at moderate speeds. The result is a safer and more pleasant street environment for everyone.
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1.4 / Why is it important?
The story is simple, increasing the number of roads under-construction will not decrease the traffic under-congestion. 14
Why is it Important? The first question that often emerges when one talks about accommodating pedestrians, cyclists, and street vendors is, “Will that not reduce traffic movement?� Yet vehicle movement and mobility are not one and the same. Mobility is about getting people to where they want to go, efficiently, conveniently, and safely. Mobility can be provided through high quality, high capacity public transport, which does not necessarily mean moving large numbers of vehicles. Even if a road widening or flyover reduces congestion, the improvement is usually short-lived. The reason is simple: expanding the available road space initially increases speed and comfort and thereby encourages more people to travel in private motor vehicles. More and more users take to the route until the wider road returns to its original level of congestion—but with significantly more vehicles stuck in traffic. There are solutions to traffic congestion too. The key to reducing congestion is lowering the number of vehicles on streets rather than increasing street widths to accommodate an ever-growing number of vehicles. This can be done through various means, including parking fees, congestion charges, and other travel demand management tools as well as through traffic calming. At a larger scale, compact, walkable urban design is the key to reducing congestion by keeping trip lengths short.
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1.5 / Principles of Street Design
Streets must be safe for all users. This implies that every street needs to have a slow zone where pedestrians have priority. In smaller streets with a shared space format, the entire street becomes a slow zone for all users, including pedestrians, vendors, cycles, and cars.
Principles of Street Design
All streets need to have continuous footpaths with minimal grade differences and adequate clear width for pedestrian through movement.
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Elements such as tree lines, landscaping, and furniture enhance a street’s slow zone, creating space for relaxation, interaction, vending, and other activities.
Larger roads can also include a mobility zone for vehicle movement.
Streets can be used as creative spaces for various communication and the street amenities can be used in various innovative ways.
Street design should enhance the local street activities, patterns of pedestrian movement, and nearby collateral uses.
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1.6 / Elements of street design
Footpaths Cycle Tracks Carriageway Bus Rapid Transit Service Lanes Landscaping Street Lighting Street Parking On Street Furniture Storm Water Traffic Calming Utilities Bus Stops Medians Pedestrian Crossing Street Vending
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Elements of Street Design We define sixteen street design elements as the street components that accommodate or serve specific functions. For example, a footpath supports pedestrian movement, and street lights improve safety. The figure on the left shows all sixteen elements. Street design elements demand detailed planning and need to be customised to fit the local context. Getting the elements in the right proportion and location is challenging because all elements interact with one another. For example, utility-oriented elements lie mainly underground, but when they surface on a pedestrian path (for instance, in the form of a phone relay box), the obstruction may cause pedestrians to walk on the main carriageway.
FIG.2
This typical BRT alignment on a 36 m street can already accommodate large passenger volumes of up to 6,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) with 12 m buses. With articulated buses, a single-lane system can carry 10,000 pphpd.
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Understanding the job/role of a communication designer and identifying the various prospects, important to designing a communication system for a specific Street. 22 2.1/Urdu bazar 24 2.2/Social Context 26 2.3/Market Competition 28 2.4/ Problem and Gap 29 2.5/ Design Scope 31
2.6/ Target Audience
Phase
2.1 / Urdu Bazaar
Ghalib lamented on the destruction of the Delhi in the aftermath of the failure of the 1857 rebellion: “My dear man, when Urdu Bazaar is no more, where is Urdu? By God, Delhi is no more a city, but a camp, a cantonment. No fort, no bazaars,....�
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Urdu Bazaar Urdu Bazaar (literally meaning military camp market; URDU literally means “royal camp”) was a major market in the walled city of Delhi that used to connect the canal in the middle of the Chandni Chowk to Jama Masjid. This market was destroyed in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The name of the Urdu language is also derived from this market. The name of the market still survives as the location near Jama Masjid. Ghalib lamented on the destruction of Delhi in the aftermath of the failure of the 1857 rebellion: “My dear man, when Urdu Bazaar is no more, where is Urdu? By God, Delhi is no more a city, but a camp, a cantonment. No Fort, no city, no bazaars, …” Before the partition of India, in 1924 the street was used by the British militants as ‘stables’ for their horses. It was only after 1950s that people started setting up book stores on the streets and katibs used to manually write the manuscripts and various other documents. Delhi’s first Chief Executive Councillor and noted freedom fighter, Mir Mushtaq Ahmad, was a resident here prior to and during his term in office and founded the Janata Cooperative Bank in Urdu Bazaar in 1956 for the benefit of local businesses and residents. His premises also hosted periodic meetings of nationally reputed poets and intellectuals. Today, the main places for printing, publishing and selling of books, in various cities of Pakistan are also called Urdu Bazar.
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2.2 / Social Context
The Story of a ‘Katib’ or a traditional calligrapher in Old Delhi’s Urdu Bazaar, is a story of standing against the tide and not calling it quits. 24
In today’s Social Context In Pakistan, where Urdu is the official language, Urdu calligraphy, in its ArabicPersian script, is a popular contemporary art. But in Delhi, where the language and its calligraphy achieved their most sophisticated expression under the Mughals, the tradition has all but died and Urdu calligraphers are scratching a living. With the outbreak of the digital revolution and thousands of fonts being produced and used digitally, the traditional art of Urdu Calligraphy is depleting at an enormous rate. The story of a katib or traditional calligrapher in Old Delhi’s Urdu Bazaar, is a story of standing against the tide and not calling it quits. Practically with only three left in the particular area(Urdu Bazar) they live under a constant fear of depleting work that they know the best. Mohammad Ghalib, one of the three is the only one getting regular work. All they get to do know is make stamps, wedding cards, posters, motifs etc. in Urdu, because of Urdu being an official language of Delhi Government. It is very evident that despite the onset of the digital revolution, fonts that we use, do not give us the freedom, joy or even playfulness of a handwritten calligraphic work. Although revival of Urdu calligraphy is gathering pace in India but we need to find ways to use this ageold traditional art in a contemporary way as tools and elements for design, communication, various art forms etc.
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2.3 / Market Competition
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Existing work on the Streets The use of street as a tool for communication and design is an age-old tradition. There are various examples of how people have used streets to communicate, across a wide palette of cultures and religions, irrespective of the geographical location. In India also people have used various forms of art on streets as a tool to communicate, advertise and even as embellishments for creative expression. In today’s context(specifically in NCR-Delhi) various forms of murals, graffitis and street art have come to function as open exhibits. Hence the streets have developed a completely new flavour and therefore providing a new foundation to the interaction and communication on streets in a contemporary way. Not only this but also these localities are now serving as creative hubs for various types of business practices from food joints to corporate houses. As a result relocating the hidden places on the map of Delhi. With the onset of these various forms of creative expression on the streets, there are few art forms that have lost their semantic sense and making it difficult for a lay man to comprehend. Though people enjoy seeing these murals or graffitis on the streets but apart from aesthetic appeal they also need to be pragmatically correct(though there are a few exceptions).
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2.4 / Problem and Gap
Problem and Gap Streets have come to function less as interactive spaces(i.e both human and virtual interaction) but merely a tool for the increasing traffic. Urdu Bazar has an age-old cultural heritage and history associated to it, despite of an intense network and connectivity through roads, hence the area remains isolated from the entire city culturally and geographically. Streets are deficit of an individualistic visual identity and a proper design system(i.e. semantically correct and practically comprehendible), hence leading to confusion and chaos. Lacks a sense of connection emotionally, culturally as well as geographically. Lacks a proper information system and design thinking. Lacks a proper expression of the age-old cultural heritage and hence making it difficult for the people to realise as well as understand the countless stories which are a subject to the inception of the place as well as the culture.
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2.5 / Design Scope
Design Scope To Build an emotional connect with the people and also promote interaction(human as well as virtual) on the streets. Opportunities to explore the various possibilities for designing an identity and signage system for a particular street/localities/ city. Enormous Possibilities for the dying art/ cultural practices to re-connect the people in a contemporary way and inform them about the rich cultural heritage, of which they are an integral part.
Role as a Communication Designer A street caters to various types of communication in different forms hence forming a holistic design system that involves people from various disciples and communication design is definetely one of them.
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2.6 / Target Audience
DEMOGRAPHICS
Age : 20-30
Education : Graduate and above
Profile : Students, Service or Business
MEDIA : Newspaper, Radio, T.V, Internet, Phone, Dinners or Lunch (weekends) Outings (once or twice in a month), movie (2 or 3 times in a month)
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Target Audience PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Early Adaptors
Creative
Futuristic
Explorers
Social, Interactive
Think differently
People who learn with every step they take
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This part establishes the context for the “thinking before the thinking� i.e the Strategy. The strategy can come from the proposition/ benifit, the market background, the choice of target market, or any combincation thereof. 34 3.1/Swot Analysis 36 3.2/Strategy Idea 37
3.3/Unique Selling Proposition
39 3.4/Prposition Support Points 41
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3.5/ Design Brief
Phase
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3.1 / Swot Analysis
S
W
Strengths
Weakness
Develop a Visual System Will Simplify communication Will Build an emotional connect Re-invent their business practices Give them recognition Communicate their stories
Weakness People may not connect with their visions People may find the art practices irrelevant in today’s context People of that particular community itself may not relate to identity.
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Swot Analysis
O
T
Oppurtunities
Threats
Re-inventing the art/ cultural practices Build an emotional connect Build human interaction Build an experience for the people visiting the streets or the localities.
Competition from already existing street art. Perception of the people Lack of knowledge among the people regarding street design that involves building an identity and a proper visual system.
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3.2 / Strategy Idea
Strategy Idea
Streets are merely used as tool to serve the need for the increasing traffic. Similarly Urdu Bazaar once an eminent place with an age old history of considerable size, has lost its significance in recent times. Therefore the strategy is to position Urdu Bazaar as an open exhibit for interaction, communication and a place for building connections.
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3.3 / Unique Selling Proposition
Unique Selling Proposition To use Streets as open exhibits for interaction, communication and building connections with the place, people and the age old rich heritage and history of the place.
The thinking before the thinking.
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3.4 / Proposition Support Points
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Proposition Support Points Prior to the 1857 rebellion Urdu Bazaar was a canal that used to link Jama Masjid to Chandni Chowk. Till the present day many cities in Pakistan where books are published and sold, these places are still referred as Urdu Bazaar. Urdu means “Royal Camp� and the name of the language Urdu itself is derived from the Urdu Bazaar. Urdu attained its highest mark of expression in Delhi under the Mughal rule and is a form of contemporary art still practiced in Pakistan and many Gulf countries but is slowly depleting from India despite of being an official language of the Delhi Government.
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3.5 / Design Brief
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Design Brief Documenting fundamental percepts of the process is the most important task. What seems to be most like a blinding flash of the obvious is frequently not. A shared understanding of the project is important so as to start the creative process. And therefore, comes the most important part of the design process that is the Creative Brief. Streets have come to function as merely a tool for the ever increasing traffic. People have forgotten the absolute delight of meeting an old friend, out of the blue on the street. They have come to function less as interaction spaces and tools for various types of visual communications. All that we care about is how to reconcile the ever increasing demands of motor vehicles. So adressing this need the brief was to select a street which despite of being well connected to the NCR Capital region is still deprived of a basic design system and has some sort of relevance in the social context. And hence designing a coherent visual identity and a holistic design system so as to re-invent the street in a contemporary way. Therefore promoting interaction (human as well as virtual) on the streets.
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To summarize from the begining this phase is the summation, progression, reflection, and expression of the entire design process. It devolops the content and design for the subject. 9
4.1/Conceptualization
10 4.2/Explorations 3
4.3/Branding
4
4.4/Signage System
5
4.5/ Final Renditions
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4.6/Bibliography
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Phase
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Conceptualization While researching and trying to understand the needs and the problems of the project, the basic motive was to find a very simple idea which could bind the entire visual identitiy together. The four basic words that came out of the research were Connection, Heritage, Calligraphy and Diversity. Since Urdu Bazaar used to be a canal that used to link Jama Masjid to Chandani Chowk, I chose to focus specifically on the word Connection and definetely not disregarding all the other aspects. The Basic idea was that how different forms of connection influence our lives in many different ways. And how the story of those little connection light up our day to day lives. Hence the scope of the project became even wider as it could also influence the connection that Urdu as a language had devoloped in the past and reached a benchmark under the Mughal emperors.
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4.2 / Explorations
The idea behind this exploration was to project the typography into a 3-D version of the street and then experiment with the signage system and the story.
The idea was to use squares and form some sort a holistic connection with the type mark and also within themselves. But I guess whatever this is, it is not working.
As I was working around connections the word ‘windows’ suddenly struck me because of the fact that how windows lead to various connections in our life.
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Explorations The idea was to sort of merge Urdu and English typefaces in an intresting manner to convey the meaning.
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4.3 / Branding
Intial U
First letter of Urdu
Intial B from
from Urdu
Calligraphy; ‘alif’
Bazaar
The Logo in variable sizes, to highlight the form and structure of the logotype
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Building the Visual Identity As I was exploring different options for the identity I started working with a few letters of the Urdu Calligraphy. The form of each and every letter was just so mesmerising that even though I didn’t understand a thing in them but they still communicated a lot in terms of rhythm, harmony and balance. More importantly then came the idea that is, how these various letter forms act like connecting dots for a language, be it Urdu, Hindi or English. So I took the very first letter of the Urdu language ‘alif’ and tried to create an identity out of it.
#fff100 #ed2246
#5bba46 #ed2246
#fff100 #00a550 49
4.3 / Branding
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Diavlo Medium; 30 pt
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 Kohinoor Latin Medium; 28 pt
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Fonts Used
अआ ॅर तय िु ोप₹ॊलकजहग्द साङषच वबनमॉआथय़ीफौझ ैळशधकछभणऎ ऒधडऋटय़उइऴजशअऍए १२३४५६७८९० Kohinoor Devanagri Medium; 28 pt
طچشزاسدفگھجکل؎پہیئےترعوق ص ؑ ڑٹٗ ٰةُ‘’ ؔ ّۂﷺيمنب ْؐ ؓذژثظںآخضحغڈ ڤصظحثظڻآخخهثطغی ۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹۰ؤأ Pak Nastaleeq Regular; 28 pt
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4.3 / Branding
Vertical Look up for the logotype
A minimum value of x has to be left around the logotype while putting it in use
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Logotype
Minimum logotype sizes
U
URDU BAZAAR Horizontal Look up for the logotype
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4.3 / Branding
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Visual Branding
The Entire visual branding of the Urdu Bazaar.
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Esplande Road
Jama Masjid Road
4.4 / Signage System
Jama Masjid
Meena Bazaar Road
Meena Bazaar Road
Urdu Bazaar Road
Urdu Bazaar Road Karim’s
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Urdu Bazaar Road
Building the Signages After completing the identity for Urdu Bazaar, I started on with the next intresting thing which was, designing the Signage system for the street. Sticking to the same idea but pushing it further I decided to colour code the streets based on the various business practices of the street vendors. All the food joints basically occur on the same street, so they became red whereas all the book stores became green and so on and so forth. The font used is Kohinoor Devanagri and Latin and for Urdu I used Pak Nastaleeq.
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4.4 / Signage System
دجسم عماج A Urdu letter is inscribed on the
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The Signages are differently colour
banner keeping in mind just a simple
coded so that it makes it easy for
thought that these letters serve as
the people to identify their way and
a connection to the entire language,
hence lead them to their destination
therefore giving the communication a
in a less chaotic way.
unique identity.
Signages
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4.4 / Signages
Since large motor vehicles are not allowed on the Urdu Bazaar road due to heavy congestion therefore there is a need for proper traffic signs to
Each and every intersection of the
devolop a system deeply rooted in the
road will have such a lamp post with
design thinking.
the following information and also the letter on the banner will have a secret fact associated with Urdu Bazaar attached to it.
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Mock Ups
The signages are color coded so that it becomes esay for people to identify their ways and also give Urdu Bazaar that special interaction which it needs so as to promote the age old cultural heritage of the market, hence giving it a new life .
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4.5 / Bibliography
Bibliography http://www.shelterarchitecture.com/residential/asid-award-2012meditation-room http://designdautore.blogspot.it/2014/04/the-z-bar-is-first-full-scaleorganic.html#.VGvp44tN3lI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0tLbl5LrJ8#t=18 http://www.asdswow.com/product_detail_galaxy.php?id=61. http://www.lm3labs.com/museum/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdcXKrpbnrM http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/meditation/meditation-for-you/ discover-your-skills http://www.buddhapadipa.org/buddhism/buddhism-today/ http://www.vipassanadhura.com/whatis.htm http://www.how-to-meditate.org/transforming-meditations.htm/
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4.6 / Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement “It is not possible to prepare a project without the assistance and guidance of other people. My project is certainly no exception.� On the very outset of this documentation of my project I would like to extend my gratitude and obligation towards all the personages who have helped me in this endeavor. Without their active guidance, help, cooperation and encouragement, I would not have made headway in the project. I am extremely thankful and pay my gratitude to all my faculties, Manas Barua for his valuable guidance and constant support. I would also like to thank my college Pearl Academy, New Delhi for all the resources and for the exposure through various and intresting workshops. I also acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence, my gratitude towards my parents and members of my family, who have always supported me morally as well as economically. At last but not the least I would also like to acknowledge my friends who have supported me directly or indirectly in completing the projects. Vidit Gupta
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