Lake view complex, New Delhi

Abstract

Mixed use developments co-locate two or more types of land uses in a building or project where those uses are physically and functionally integrated, providing pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development can take the form of a single building, a city block, or entire neighborhoods. Traditional urban forms freely mixed uses both in neighborhoods and individual buildings. With the advent of zoning, this style of development was zoned out. Recently, the smart growth movement has encouraged cities to return to mixed use patterns as way to foster healthy communities by placing residential units in close proximity to services, retail, offices and transit. The state of public transport in the majority of Indian cities has degraded over the years. Rising population and underdeveloped mass transport has led to a rapid rise of personal vehicles, traffic congestion and increase in pollution. Moreover, the majority of people do not use public transport simply because of the lack of it and inaccessibility to the transit. Therefore, while augmenting public transport, design for accessibility is the need of the hour. Increased density and improved connectivity through Transit Oriented Development can help achieve that. Hence, this thesis is an attempt of research work on two crucial parts of urban design and at the same time providing an architectural design scheme for a particular context