Habitat Center : A Communal Public Space

Project idea

This Thesis work attempts to achieve the objective by highlighting the needs, importance and role of Public Spaces designed/ planned either within the respective site-complex or around built form by analyzing their
relationship with each other in a city’s urban fabric. To understand this concept, an inevitable approach of Participatory Design process is adopted by me which further acted as a catalyst and enabled me to present a design proposal for the public.
The idea of selecting this topic emerged from my study/ research on Public Spaces for the community during dissertation. Hence, it was a challenging yet inspiring experience for me to critically think and amalgamate the essence of an openness of spaces with the building
so as to promote community integration and maintain a balanced inclusive environment at a meso-level. Therefore, I come across with a design of center with mixed-building use which is public cum institutional
and also recreational which would be able to display the impact of its presence on people’s mind along with the perception of its use in a developing city of Noida.

Project description

This study examines the participatory process of designing a public space, the resulting public space itself, and how both process and product acted as a catalyst to promote and influence community development in a town / city / nation. As community design involves people who typically have little control over environmental decisions and hence, participation helps leaders to emerge and continue to advocate for other community needs. Community participation is praised highly for the idea that the environment works better if citizens are active and involved in its creation and management instead of being treated as passive consumers.
Participatory design is often linked to community development and deciding who gets to participate is one significant aspect of the participatory process. The inclusion of disadvantaged or marginalized people requires additional work and planning, but can result in the empowerment of those who are chronically ignored or disempowered. Specifically, in the creation of public spaces, the inclusion of children in the design process is an understudied and underutilized area – especially in developing nations. It is rare for even privileged children to be asked to comment on, or critique their communities and public spaces – environments created by adults and other forces beyond their control. It is perhaps even less common for children to be asked to intervene in those environments and produce physical objects that might even temporarily alter their living space in some positive direction.
Hence, with an increasingly urbanized world and the shrinking of public space within cities, it is important for designers to learn how to create spaces that help to define cities and at the same time address user needs. The overall goal of my study is to devise a framework for creating an urban space with the above attributes and to be able to use that framework to inform a successful design project.

NEED OF STUDY AND PROJECT :
Every city has its unique feel and features. The urban environment and its architecture plays an most important role. Cities are the public interface for the development of societies in which individual lives. The city of Noida, is a vibrant center for trade and commerce having an increasing developing rate with years. It has become an important trade and business hub.
Hence, the proposal of Habitat Centre (a public place on the lines of India Habitat Centre at Delhi) has been forwarded by the Noida authority. It will provide a physical environment, which will serve as a catalyst for a synergetic relationship between individuals and institutions working in diverse habitat related areas and therefore maximize their total effectiveness to facilitate this inter-action, thus the center provides the superb range of facilities.

WHAT IS A HABITAT CENTER AND ITS DESIGN IMPACT :
• It is a center of contemporary, cultural, economic, business and social events. The concern for habitat and its environment works as the backbone for habitat center.
• It does not only provide working environment to its employees but also contribute to the urban level functions that a living city requires
• Its basic principle is to restore at every level that is environmental and ecological balance in an improved way of life.
• It provides an ideal physical environment with a range of facilities that would maximize the effectiveness of the individuals and institutions, in their holistic support of habitat and welfare of society.

GOALS, PRINCIPLES AND REASON FOR SELECTING THIS TOPIC :
It is interested to see how architecture influences the social and cultural society. It does not only provide working environment to its employees but also contribute to the urban level functions that a living city requires.
• I have selected this topic based on the analysis & the outcome of the immediate need of public space (accepted and realized by the general public) for community gathering / participation, to understand socio-cultural aspects, identity in a society as individual, efficient use of spaces we have left with and a multifunctional design for different purposes.
• Among other architectural expressions, the function that a building houses a major catalyst that influence a change.
• For this thesis, I have chosen a project that will include a maximum of functions which caters a various group of users.
• Also, at public level, the project will act as a vibrant and freely accessible public space ( & not just a building typology ). It will act as a public domain for the people to interact and meet at common platform and know their true identity and role in society.
• The concept of shared space helps to reduce the privatization of the spaces in today’s architectural field and hence to understand the role of public spaces for the community.

Technical information

AIM :
The aim of this thesis is to design a HABITAT CENTRE for the community to enhance social interaction among them and efficient use of spaces for the public in design.

OBJECTIVES :
Objectives of the project according to Noida Authority are :

• As Noida is a flourishing area of the National Capital Region, it has been decided to establish the Noida Habitat / Convention Centre (NHC) for societal, cultural and intellectual development at the national and international levels.
• Its objective will be to awaken and promote the environment of society's intellectual activities.
• Keeping the convenience of all the residents, industrialists, businessmen and traders of the city in mind, the NHC will run several cultural programs and intellectual seminars.

Objectives of the project for my design will be :
• To understand the meaning of shared space for public.
• To understand the requirements and need of user by providing different spaces on site and in building.
• To aware people about using and management of these public spaces.
• To reduce the privatization of spaces through this prototype to some extent.

What is this project to me?
• Issues are to be considered before designing & the approach will be in context of the place.
• The complex will have many activities and functions & main issues that will be considered are interplay of shapes, introduction of environment-friendly materials. And maximum utilization of energy being a prime center of Noida.
• A fixed typology of an institutional complex should be seen from different perspective in terms of aesthetics and also function of different spaces which will be another challenge while designing.

What is project’s significance to society?
• It will attract a large number of users and activities. W it will attract a large number of users and activities.
• It will evolve work environment that will inspire other buildings to build in a manner which includes a platform for exchange of ideas in the field of art, culture and science.
• It will include a hierarchy of open spaces suitably landscaped and provided with amenities for rest of the citizens to make an urban environment.
• Planning of these spaces is integral to a community’s overall development as well as its identity and sense of place.
• It will help in shaping an appropriate image of the city and thus achieving a socially sustainable urban community.

PROJECT’S END USE / SCOPE :
• The involvement of as many as citizens possible by providing access to them, helps to create a socially inclusive public place and would set as a benchmark for other developments in the area.
• The design will be a participatory approach through designing and use of such spaces on the site which would act as a catalyst for the community development.
• These factors helps to make it an engaging place, so that it can be used throughout the day and is mixed in its use making it a multifunctional space.

Documentation

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