Open Competition
Year
Aug 2021
Team
Ganesh Babu R P, Kapilan Chandranesan, Radhakrishnan T R and Raghuram Kaliamoorthy
Organisers
Trichy City Municipal Corporation in collaboration with ITDP as part of Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India
Awards & Mentions
- Second Prize | Streets4People Design Competition
(Click here) for more information regarding the competition.
Trichy, situated in the center of Tamil Nadu is the fourth-largest urban agglomeration in the state and is fast growing. Like every other tier-II city in India, rapid urbanization creates enormous stress on the mobility systems and reduces the quality of life in urban areas due to urban sprawl and congestion. These are complex systemic issues that are difficult to address with limited access to resources. Thus we need smart strategies and design approaches to deal with the problems the city faces to increase the quality of life for everyone and the vibrancy of city life without adding financial stress to the corporation.
Streets are the lifeblood of cities ensuring the movement of people and goods within the city. In our proposal, we focus on the movement of people and not vehicles, to streamline and improve the throughput of the arterial streets through a combination of public transport, cycles, pedestrians, and private motor vehicles. The streamlining is further extended through the formulation of a superblock.
A super-block is an area of urban land bounded by arterial roads that is the size of multiple typically-sized city blocks. Within the superblock, the local road network is designed to serve local needs only. This proven model of organizing mobility and public life leads not only to a modal shift to bicycles and walking, but also increased commercial activity within and along the superblock, creating economically thriving cities.
Trichy is in dire need of green and recreational spaces for the growing population. Through an integrated approach, green and healthy corridors are designed as part of streets, as they can double as recreational spaces in early mornings, late evenings, and on the weekends.
Our framework for designing the streets involves three steps. The first is to ensure the basics of safe streets are addressed. This is done by providing uniform width for carriageways, compacting large intersections for safe crossings, and designing on-street metered parking along the streets. Secondly, the recovered space is then used to develop healthy corridors of walking, cycling, and green spaces. Finally, pockets of space are identified along the streets and are used to introduce new activities based on the context, to promote vibrancy on the streets.
Competition Sheets
