The project is an individual exploration resulting from collective research that deals with the rethinking of construction labour camps in urban areas and their role in the development of cities. The argument put forth through the investigation is that rethinking camps as legitimate parts of the city requires variation in the typology of camps based on urban conditions. Additionally, it necessitates rearrangements in the institutional procedures and the involvement of the public sector along with market forces in the development of cities.
The design exploration addresses camps associated with new areas undergoing development in the urban fringe. Camps in the urban fringe are part of a process associated with urbanising new land driven by the Masterplan. They are located in the periphery of new developments, opening up new lines of movement as they move between worksite and camp. However, due to a lack of an integrated system of planning that addresses all the camps in the area through time, their impact on the territory is negligible. The project explores the potential of reorganising the camps into a network of centralities in order to structure the movement and facilitate new relations in the territory. Ecologies that are created initially based on temporary activities can become more permanent over time, having an impact on the long-term development of the area.
01 URBAN STRATEGY: DISTRIBUTION OF CENTRALITIES & CREATING NEW RESIDENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Organisation of the collective activities in camps in relation to a plan for the intensification of a mobility system is used to create a web of centralities that starts to structure the movement and new relations in the territory. By transforming the camps into permanent housing for territory, it can generate alternative residential opportunities to support different social groups. This will enable a better integration of camps with the neighbourhood through a form of incremental development.
02 CREATING MIXED USE ENVIRONMENTS (CENTRALITY)
The design involves creating an active mixed-use environment, with differentiated public, semi public and domestic spaces as part of a network of new centres of gravity. The proposed network acts as a magnet for public transport that can start to intensify the mobility system in a developing area on the one hand, and contribute towards improving movement patterns at the local scale in the longer term.
Research Partners : Piyush Makwana, Sharmila Kamalakannan
FOLIO 