Aerial render of mid-rise buildings among trees along a road

Urban Threshold

Redevelopment of a market precinct

Year: 2020
Place: Defence Colony, New Delhi, India
Context: Urban design, architecture school, fourth year. Group of four
Role: Green space strategy, retail and office design

Group of four: my part: green space, retail and office
People first: a walking and cycling network through a precinct built for cars

It wasn’t about making grand gestures but creating intimate moments.

01A precinct built for cars

The market precinct at Defence Colony had been designed around vehicles. We asked what would happen if the market was the threshold where a neighbourhood meets itself.

02People first

A pedestrian and cycle network now joins the whole site.

Site plan with pedestrian routes marked in orange — Pedestrian movement across the site.

03A layered public realm

I led the green space strategy and the market redesign: green streets, courtyards, plazas, open-air theatres and habitable terraces.

Render of a planted pedestrian street between mid-rise buildings — A green street between the housing blocks.

Three-step diagram of the retail blocks and the routes between them — Retail form: crossing pedestrian axes, staggered volumes, skywalks.