This proposal was my undergraduate thesis submitted at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, India, for the completion of Bachelor of Architecture degree.
Cities EVOLVE. A place that had a specific moral yesterday can mean something else today and a different one tomorrow. No context stays static.
Having said that, are we acting conscious of those transformations? Has the progress our communities have made created sensible reflections in our cityscapes? Do our city-building strategies embed visions for the future, or are they just remedies for the present?
I pondered all these questions while viewing the city of Madurai through the lens of urban design and architecture. Madurai, as a city with multiple hues, has rich historical and socio-cultural significance. The city, which emerged as a planned settlement along the southern bank of R. Vaigai, has now expanded almost equally on either side. Literature, art, commerce, religion, and tourism all hold relevance to the city. But the unorganised urbanism of today implants pieces that, in no way, can become part of the whole and strengthen the urban fabric.
Urban Connect as a project explores a water-centric development paradigm for Madurai by positioning the Vandiyur Tank as the 'new growth magnet' and setting a 'new vision for urbanisation'.
In a larger urban network, the role of architecture in isolation might seem smaller. But the impact generated by a building conceived with a larger vision will be much bigger. If the city’s vision was clear, or at least if there ever was a vision, the tank would have earned a face lift decades ago. This project was a humble exploration of setting such an urban vision through an architectural intervention.
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Interested to see more of my early year experiments in architecture? Browse through my undergraduate portfolio below.
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