Integrated mixed use complex At sanjay lake, New Delhi

Abstract

By the year 2050, 66% of the global population is estimated to be living in dense urban agglomerations. Owing to these contemporary lifestyles, increasing density, urban sprawl and land scarcity, a high rise building is considered as the most economic building form. This poses a question for the designers weather the current approach to high rise design insures adequate quality of life to the occupants. A high rise building is generally associated as a tall, singular, concealed, isolated building from the city’s fabric which acts like an island within the city. Mono-functional mega towers which are generally designed by repeating a similar floor plate around a service core, can be currently observed around our cities. These high rise structures stand in complete isolation from their surrounding context creating a physical and social disconnect. In case of vertical mixed use blocks where retail or public functions are combined with private functions like residential or offices, the building form generally takes shape of a tower cum podium typology where the public functions are just restricted to the ground levels while the podium acts as a buffer between the ‘city’ and the ‘building’. (Glaser, 2012) Here the lower floors and upper floors act as two separate worlds, providing no social connection between the two and also lacks to provide social spaces for the people living on the upper levels. This kind of architecture has resulted into the phenomenon of ‘cocooning’. As described by Prof. Paul J. Cloke societies are becoming more insulated and ‘capsular’ where movement via transportation capsules takes place from one enclave or capsule (home, for instance) to another (campus, office, airport, hotel, mall). (Cloke, 2003) Our society needs architecture, that facilitates meeting with strangers. There is need to rethink and reimagine how can we design these tall buildings which reenergise a sense of community and social coherence and becomes a part of the city. We need to reimagine our cities from a three dimensional perspective to create a vertical hybrid that combines a variety of functions, integrate public and social spaces on upper levels, to create a dynamic and vibrant 24x7 active space where a diverse user group can live, work, play in an integrated environment. The high rise buildings need to be designed to provide similar quality of urban spaces that are found at the ground level, varying in type and scale, to create ‘places in the sky’ that make high rise living desirable. This thesis attempts to rethink and reimagine how can we design these tall buildings which re-energise a sense of community and social coherence and becomes a part of the city. The idea is to design a vertical hybrid from a three dimensional perspective, that combines a variety of functions, integrate public and social spaces on upper levels, to create a dynamic and vibrant 24x7 active space where a diverse user group can live, work, play in an integrated environment.