Odedra Vaishali Bhima

IR3019

The project “Playscape” is a children’s play and learn intervention programmed in the Old Stock Exchange building in Mahurat pol in chowk in the old city. This building is an old colonial structure with various styles and is marked as a heritage building.  The building currently is in not in use, is severely damaged, and is encroached at the rear end. Interior spaces have an array of issues from chipping to broken windows and unsightly elements lying around. The project has 3 main design interventions. Clearing the extensions on the east which have been added later to create a public corridor to the Queen's tomb and to open the east façade to its original form. Refurbishing the dilapidated elements in the building skin and roof the final design, is adding new structural elements in the interior to create a playscape while keeping intact the building skin. 
Elaborating on the design, the playscapes are created using a steel grid structure which connects different floors of the original structure. Each floor plate is made up of wood interspersed with coloured glass. Various activities of play are designed on different floors using nets, slides and swings. The intervention is an insert which opens the building to all floors and connects to the urban street connecting it to the local public without touching the building’s facade to perceive its beauty, grandeur and visual enhancement of its architectural order. The new steel grid structure with wooden floor plates and coloured glass allows children to wander, hear one’s voice and see from across and above. It allows hopping around through different levels of floors with play elements such as nets, slides and swings.