TA: Riya PaiReimagine: Repurposing Vacant Mill Lands for Sustainable Urban Developments
Ahmedabad, India’s only heritage city (UNESCO), is endowed with rich architectural and Industrial heritage. However, several mills closed in late 90s and their huge land-banks continue to be unutilized voids amidst dense urban sprawls. This studio aims to create a master plan by inquiring into the possibilities of befitting adaptive reuse of these land-banks to curate contextual and accessible public open spaces. The design proposals could help forlorn mills/mill lands to celebrate their history and lend an identity to these places.
In a quest to develop a Master plan, students will engage with the site in depth to map the physical morphology and understand the intangible layers such as the history, associated cultural and social values. Engaging closely with adjoining neighbourhoods to acknowledge their aspirations and past connections with mill lands will help the students build a design framework. The studio will identify one or more such sites and analyze through different lenses to understand the site as a system, and apply their design framework to create a landscape master plan that celebrates heritage and embraces the future.
The studio will encourage the students to think beyond the conventional route of redevelopment to create aesthetic and self-sustaining liveable places.
This studio focused on the necessity to activate the derelict mill lands within the dense city cores with a special focus on Adaptive reuse. The design proposals help forlorn mills/mill lands to celebrate their history and lend an identity to these places.
Unveiling the history of the site with respect to Industrial heritage helped in understanding the relation of mills on the growth of urban morphology.
The precincts were mapped and analyzed for its attributes (tangible and intangible). Synthesizing the data helped formulate strategies which built a ‘Design Framework’. This served as a toolkit for master planning.
In-depth engagement with the sites chosen helped the students ground the programme and develop arguments for critical decisions.
Weaving the site synthesis with the stakeholder aspirations helped to bring out a comprehensive plan that demonstrated the adaptive reuse of the site/ part of the site to celebrate heritage and embrace the future.
