OUR CITIES are in a way our IDENTITIES, and this identity is formed on the basis of an understanding of time spent INTERACTING with the different faces of the city while we travel or get stuck in traffic throughout the day. MALLICK GHAT flower market is situated at one such very influential junction at the entrance of the City of Joy, Kolkata. With the influx of daily passengers from different modes of transportation conjoining here – at the site holding the city’s auspicious riverfront, bathing ghats, traditional flower market, a spill-out space for one of the country’s largest wholesale markets “Burra Bazar” and the icon of the city: the Howrah Bridge, this project is an OPPORTUNITY to try and design an IMAGERY of “harmony in chaos” for the commuters to experience and feel good about; as a part of a wholesome en-route story, like a small song in their daily hustle-bustle.
HYPOTHESIS
We are so busy in our daily schedules that the time taken by us to travel to and from our places of work is the little we get to interact with our cities at an urban platform. This interaction forms in our minds the image of a city which differentiates it from other cities. This in turn influences the opinions we form about our cities. As architects, we should take this opportunity to design en-route spaces consciously, in a way which allows movement through the city to be colourful and lively, so that after such a livening en-route experience, we reach our respective destinations with a happier mind set.
PROPOSITION
Primarily the quest of this thesis project is figure out how in the city of Kolkata, the movement pattern in an urban junction of the city can be used to revitalize its river edge. The project is an effort to reconnect the precious yet misused river front by
studying movement patterns and designing public movement across the riverfront stretch to liven up their daily routes to work.
