UTTHAN: RAILPORT "FUTURE READY"

Piloo Modi College of Architecture,ABIT, Cuttack, Orissa

Project idea

A Railway station has always been considered as a focal point of development of an urban area . Looking back to history ,railway stations have always been an engine of Urban growth and even remains the same in the present day, rather gaining more importance in the modern context as an interconnected mode of public transport.This helps to strengthen dense urban growth and counteract the urban sprawl that creates greater dependence on cars.
We foresee the future where the metropoliteans and mega cities will be developing exponentially. With advancement in every field and artificial intelligence,we may face a sudden economic regression due to unseen reasons, where the people already owning private vehicles will prefer to switch over to public transportation.
If we consider the frame of coherence in a macroscopic scale,it is evident that natural degradation took place periodically.The "green" has been eradicated through a sudden transformation into the "red".The rate of violence has increased, whether its on the nature or the people.The aim is to create an iconic skyline that conveys a cognitive motto across the entire region.In the era of post-pandemic architecture, the design emphasizes on the "positive utopia" and the "perception over protection"___pointing clearly towards the PARADIGM SHIFT(utthan) we aspire to reinforce by 2030.
The whole idea is to strategically design a railway station and an urban stretch in a way that it contains all the quintesstential elements of urban growth and can itself act as a backup to support the falling economy along with providing a world class transport facility with the best of the modern amenities.
Can the building act as an origin of inspiration and positivity or a landmark that reveals the importance of the "green" to the future generations?......A new direction in lifestyle,morality,universal,social and public awareness.

Project description

Site : Anand Vihar Railway station.
Location : Anand Vihar, New Delhi, India.

THE URBAN CONTEXT
By studying the present scenario and the future predictions, the whole site is strategically divided into 5 major land use patterns that will help the site act as a backup during the time of need. These are:
1. AGRO-INDUSTRIAL : This consists of the “Vertical Farming Towers” that will act as a boost to sustainability and the "green aspect" and play the dual role of feeding the society and providing economic support by means of providing shares to the State GDP.
2. COMMERCIAL & MIXED USE : It consists of the “ office” , “Mall and multiplex” , “Hotel” and “Expo”.: These are directly linked with providing jobs and additions to the progress of the urban growth.
3. RECREATIONAL ZONE AND LANDSCAPE ; These create a major green pocket in an urban area and create 'Green Lungs' for the city where people can breathe freely . The second intention is to divide the major part of the site from the railway station building in order to maintain a proper public flow and to create a seamless movement throughout the site I.e. to use landscape as a barrier to channelize and control the public movement.
4. INFRASTRUCTURE & ADMINISTRATION:This consists of the railway station building.
5. INSTITUTIONAL AND RECREATIONAL : This consists of the museum so that future scholars can have a database of the paradigm shift of the masses towards the public transport for reference.

THE MICRO LEVEL PLANNING:
The planning of the station building is conceptualized on the basis of bio-mimic synthesis where first the major service cores were fixed then a seamless differentiation was made between the public and the private cores. Then according to the requirements and FAR it was segregated to different levels.
1. Ground floor - Arrival area
2. 1st floor - Departure area
3. .2nd floor- IRCTC hotel
4. 3rd floor - Luxury Lounges.

Technical information

Keeping in mind the futuristic aspect, the whole station building has been designed to have a skeletal framework of prefabricated steel structure while the finishes would be carried out by techniques like digital CNC Cladding.
As the site lies in seismic zone IV, base isolators along with oil bearings and dampers have been provided at every 15m.
The facade is made up of transparent solar glass panels to contribute to the sustainability aspect by using renewable energy. While the heating issues that might be created due to the solar radiation influx is neutralised using boolean surface cooling coils . R-12 will be passed through this cooling coils at a higher velocity to extract surface heat and create a micro climate inside the dome.
Considerations on natural illumination have been made by placing cut outs and geodesic domes.Northlight trusses supporting green roofs have been used in the grand opening of the terminal building.
The concepts of kinetic facades have also been introduced here.

Co-authors

Abhishek Rao,
Sayantan Bhattacharjee
and Spriha Chakravorty