Naya Raipur
Naya Raipur
Naya Raipur
Call for applications to select the 21 participants for the professional workshop
Explore, test and propose ways that the new, emerging city of Naya Raipur can provide for Indian Life: Inhabiting the thresholds and spaces between buildings and streets; city and landscape; neighbourhoods and districts; providing for the needs of citydwellers to become more equal and prosperous in the future. Engage with the design of a new city, as it comes into being.
Preamble
Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) is the development authority for a new capital city in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. As a partner in the European-Union funded Euro-Asian Sustainable Towns Programme (EAST), the NRDA has invited Les Ateliers to hold a professional workshop on the topic of the development of the new city in November 2012. The workshop will fulfil the aims of the EAST programme to promote exchange of knowledge and learning about new towns between Europe and Asia. Websites: Naya Raipur Development Authority: http://www.nayaraipur.com Euro-Asian Sustainable Towns Programme: http://www.east-project.org Members of EAST and Les Ateliers made preparatory visits to Naya Raipur in September 2010 and November 2011 to agree with the NRDA the objectives, topics and arrangements for the workshop, which are outlined in this document. As part of the visits, meetings were also held with other stakeholders in the adjacent city of Raipur, including the Raipur Development Authority, Universities, Developers and others. These meetings provided valuable insights into the opportunities and issues present in the development of a new city and have informed this document. The team of Les Ateliers express their gratitude to the S. S. Bajaj, Chief Executive of the NRDA and the NRDA staff for their support for the workshop and for the open access provided to the new and existing cities and their stakeholders. This document has been prepared by Florence Bougnoux and Roland Karthaus, scientific directors of the workshop. Sketches by Florence Bougnoux and photographs by Roland Karthaus The document is available at http://www.ateliers.org
Presentation of the international network of urban planners, Les Ateliers de Cergy, France. Les Ateliers are a non-profit non-governmental organisation that brings together universities, decision makers and professionals dedicated to urban planning, development and design. Focusing on urban development, the Ateliers organise workshops and aim to provide a space for reflection on urban design and creativity. In France or other countries, each workshop offers local authorities new and innovative urban development proposals, international experiences and innovative ideas about urban planning problems. In addition, by confronting different disciplines and cultures, each Ateliers session is also a source of training for all the participants, whether they are local or international experts, and a source of high quality exchanges of views. At the beginning, the Ateliers focused on urban planning issues for the Paris Ile de France Region (one workshop each summer since 1982). Then, the Ateliers developed a very deep knowledge of Asia (sessions in Tokyo, Doi Tung, Canton, Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, An Giang, Can Gio, Phnom Penh, Bangkok) and recently diversified their fruitful work by combining workshops along the Mediterranean Sea (Casablanca, Marseille) and in Africa and South America (Benin, Senegal and Brazil).
1 Introduction
Naya Raipur is a new, planned capital city for 560,000 inhabitants, adjacent to the existing city of Raipur and currently under construction. The state government is moving to Naya Raipur in 2012, attracting new workers, residents and businesses and beginning the establishment of a new, urban population centre. This is a critical moment for the region: the way that the new city develops and is inhabited in the early years will greatly influence its future form and success. The workshop in November 2012 will take place at a point in time when the first steps of a new city are being taken, but different possibilities remain open. NRDA, the development agency responsible for the new city are open to ideas and wish to invite professional participants to work under the les Ateliers method, to explore these possibilities, with the intention of implementation of the best results. The Naya Raipur Masterplan sets out phased development over the next 19 years through to 2031. The document sets out the objective of the new city as follows: It will be modern in the use of technology, uphold worthy traditions and core values, and conserve the prevailing man-nature symbiotic culture as well as abundant natural & cultural assets in the region. The citizens will be offered a wide range of living options with equity and dignity
Naya Raipur
Naya Raipur lies to the southeast of the former state capital, Raipur. The elongated, north-south rectilinear form of the arterial road structure can now be seen from satellite photos. The international cricket stadium is the first completed major building (below right) and the state administration is in the process of moving into the capital complex.
Constructing a new city in India provides the opportunity to incorporate modern engineering solutions to deal with the normally chronic problems of transport, drainage, water and electricity supplies and the plan for Naya Raipur is based on a sophisticated layering of modern infrastructure. This aspect of the design is well-developed and necessary, but the fast pace of development in India has not resulted in the loss of spiritual and cultural traditions and modes, as it has in other developing countries. Religion permeates contemporary life in myriad ways and the culture of informality is an important form of social glue that mostly ensures a tolerant, diverse society. The Naya Raipur plan aims to accommodate this Indian way of life, but it is not yet clear how it will provide a spiritual and cultural infrastructure; overlapping layers that are no less important than the layers of engineering infrastructure. The goal is not to re-make society to fit a new model, but to think about how a new town can grow with the traditional ways of life. Especially in this part of India, newly urbanised people bring with them rural social norms and remain connected to the life of the village, as can be seen in the existing city of Raipur. The goal is therefore to increase the level of life of the inhabitants in a sustainable and equitable way and to recognise these social structures as a positive factor in the design of a new city.
The objective of the workshop is to explore the potential for the new city plan to achieve its goal of becoming a city for everyone. A means to explore this potential is through the thresholds that are highly significant in Indian architecture and the main space where social interaction occurs. To test the potential of these spaces, four topics are given: i. mixity of forms, functions and people; ii. transport and density; iii. space and water as a social resource; iv. positioning of the city. A number of sites will be identified as testing grounds for these topics, based on the identification of particular threshold conditions. 2012 is an important time for Naya Raipur. A great deal of planning has gone into the new city; the first districts are under construction and the first inhabitants arriving, but many details will have to be worked out over the following 20 years of construction. The future of a city can never be fully planned in advance and once inhabited it will take on a life of its own. The opportunity of the workshop is to test the new plan in certain critical respects and to make proposals for how it can be adjusted and adapted to anticipate and accommodate Indian life.
Above: a threshold space in an existing village within the Naya Raipur development area Above right: threshold in Delhi; note how the doorway is marked by a small shrine Right: layering of the street in Chandigarh Below: how will the new city provide for the same social functioning in a new urban environment?
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In the coming 25-year period, India will be adding 220 million to its urban population, taking it up by 77 per cent.
Delhi
18 Mumbais
Raipur
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23.5
20
Mumbai
14 Delhis 30 Bangalores
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Bangalore
237
square kilometers
Naya Raipur
560,000
Slide from a presentation by Alpan Nawrell
population by
2031
Chhattisgarh became a new state in 2 000. Resource-rich (particularly coal and metal ores) and industrially powerful it supplies 15% of Indias steel and is a net exporter of electricity. The state also contains large areas of forest, with great biodiversity and indigenous tribes whose traditional ways of life are increasingly threatened due to mining activities and infrastructure development. This disenfranchisement is being exploited by Maoist groups in the south who are waging a guerrilla campaign against the state. Chhattisgarh is also important for agriculture, particularly rice and the landscape is dotted with man-made ponds that hold water from the monsoons to irrigate the paddy-fields during the dry season. The rural pattern is an even distribution of small villages surrounded by productive fields and ponds. Urbanisation is less advanced than India as a whole and 80% of the population is rural. In the central-eastern area of the state are major wildlife reserves, which attract tourists from across India.
Central urban belt of Chhattisgarh from NRDA Raipur: There is evidence of an ancient settlement in Raipur, with the remains of a fort dating back to the 9th century. The city was conquered by the British in the mid-19th Century who made it the headquarters of the administrative district of Chhattisgarh. Following independence, Chhattisgarh was part of the state of Madhya Pradesh, until the new state formation in 2 000. The modern city has a population of 1 000 000 and is ethnically diverse, with a long history of ethnic and religious tolerance. An important commercial hub, its primary industries are agricultural processing and trading and milling of metals, such as iron and aluminium. It has several Higher Education institutes and is currently the seat of state government (planned transition in 2012). Water bodies are a key feature of the city, with several major basins forming focal points in the centre. The streets are narrow and quite congested. Rainwater gulleys are inadequate and often blocked, meaning that flooding is a significant problem during the monsoon. The city has seen increasing levels of prosperity and fast development since 2001. There are slum areas, but less than the Indian average. The situation of a rapidly-developing urban agglomeration, surrounded by a highly rural population means there are strong development pressures, especially around the edges of the city. The lack of development control or taxation in rural areas results in unplanned, sprawl development and this is one of the driving forces for the establishement of a new, planned city. The suburbs are currently under a separate city redevelopment programme being delivered by the Raipur Development Authority (RDA) with the first phase taking place in the southeast corner of the city, near to the Naya Raipur administrative boundary. The model for the RDA plan involves trading parcels of privately owned, formerly agricultural land for regularised, planned plots which are smaller than the original ownership, but with the benefit of infrastructure and services. The Naya Raipur plan envisages 40% of the new population migrating from Raipur, so an understanding of the existing social practices in the existing city will be important.
Application document for the workshop in Naya Raipur, India. Information : [email protected] / Application : [email protected]
Naya Raipur: The site for the new city was chosen for its proximity to Raipur, the airport and existing land-uses and topography. There are 41 villages in the entire planning area, with 13 villages in Layer I (the planned urban part of the city, phased to 2031). Village farmland is being compulsory purchased by the NRDA with financial compensation paid to the owners, but the villages themselves will remain to be absorbed into the new city (one village only has been relocated). The topography is generally flat, but with some localised features. Thierry Paquot said: In a few years, India changed her speed: from the cow speed to the plane speed, from rural traditional country, living in the seasons rhythms, to an unbelievable melting point of modernity; India combines temporalities, without losing their compasses (translated from the French) Naya Raipur exactly typifies this Indian situation: it is next to a nationally-connected and currently expanding airport whilst being surrounded by villages and rice fields.
RAIPUR
NAYA RAIPUR
AIRPORT
NRDA and the future city governance: The new city is being delivered by the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA); a state development agency with powers to acquire land within the identified boundary and to administer the development of the new city. The capital complex, arterial roads and other key infrastructure are state-funded, whilst other parcels of land will be sold to developers, or housing agencies to complete the plan. The remit of the
Application document for the workshop in Naya Raipur, India. Information : [email protected] / Application : [email protected]
NRDA is clearly for the development phase of the new city. Once the city reaches a certain administrative threshold size, a city government will be formed with elected members and city-management officials. This transition will be a critical point in the creation of the city and the way in which the facilities designed in the development are taken forward in the new operational regime will set the city on one of many possible paths. In Raipur, it can be seen that the maintenance and management of the city operates on a lowtech basis, due to the low cost and surplus of low-skilled labour. This creates problems, as the low-tech infrastructure (such as open sewers, for example) cannot cope with the high speed of development. The new plan, however relies on modern, high-tech infrastructure, which can better provide for a modern urban environment, but it is not yet clear how the operational requirements will be met by a new city administration. Modern infrastructure requires high-skilled maintenance and operation, as well as higher taxation and it is not yet clear whether a city that is striving for social equality will be able to afford the longterm cost of providing high-tech services to all of its citizens.
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Commuting in Raipur
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2F - Presentation / Environment
The landscape is quite particular in Chhattisgarh, with the water bodies that serve a functional purpose for agriculture in the rural areas also being prominent in the cities as in Raipur. The functional purposes of the water bodies (irrigation, washing etc.) overlap with spiritual and cultural purposes and they are places of special importance in Indian life. Water exerts a strong force on peoples lives due to the polarised climate (dry season / rainy season). The water bodies help to conserve water from the rainy season through the dry season, but as the population grows, they are under greater pressure. Drinking water is taken from the water table through wells, which is also diminishing and in some areas of Chhattisgarh is contaminated with by-products of mining activities. In the monsoon, the dense and impermeable ground of urbanised areas quickly floods, causing serious problems. The temperature also varies greatly, with 45C being common in the summer months. The architecture of vernacular villages has evolved to deal with these climatic conditions, but in cities, the balance between development and the environment is different. As an example in Raipur the waste water infrastructure is overwhelmed by storm water in the monsoon, meaning the water bodies become polluted. These water-bodies exist as soon as there is a single inhabitant area and are important to both rural and urban life. This is common feature between Raipur and Naya Raipur, as many water bodies are regenerated in Raipur, and many water bodies from villages will be included in Naya Raipur.
The rural landscape pattern from the air consists of villages surrounded by paddyfields and water bodies. The water bodies serve a variety of overlapping functional and social purposes
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Currently, the capitol buildings and the first housing sector are nearing completion and a new village for the community of relocated villagers is complete and inhabited.
3 Workshop Issue
Four general topics for the workshop are to be explored: 1. Mixity The masterplan includes mixed-income housing, which is a positive step towards inclusivity. Cities, though are made of many different elements, bound together by infrastructure, so to think beyond only mixed housing, what are the elemental and infrastructural needs of a city for everyone? How can the new city accommodate the inevitable slums, both as an economic system and as a housing system? Retail has a special place in Indian life and is dependent on the symbiotic relationship between formal and informal, micro and macro; how can such relationships be sustained in a new city? How can the new administrative, educational, healthcare and industrial facilities be connected to support public life and improvement in the city? The life of the Indian street is dependent on mixity; how can this be planned for?
Chandigarh: Corbusiers planned city was limited by a greenbelt, but the slums were not catered for and so they now occupy the greenbelt area and stand in stark contrast to wealthy dwellings on the greenbelt boundary
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2. Public transport and urban density Public transport has especially many levels in India, and the road is shared between many speed levels, not in dedicated lanes; These transports are intimately connected with the life and small scale all along the road. Indian cycling and walking distances vary greatly: 10-20 kms is a normal distance to bike from village to work, 4-8 kms by walk is also normal. How can the public space of the street be best organised to continue to support this critical connection between the different scales of transport and the mixed urban scales? Should the traffic be segregated, or will this work against the urban life? Indian transport is not simply about moving from A to B. How is the local scale transport related to the intercommunal and logistic scales?
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Logistic scale: between Chattisgarhs towns , ports (Momba, Kolkotta, Vizag), mines,airport Intercommunal scale : intermodal nodes, between BRT and local bus lines, and cycle / pedestrian lanes, rickshaw lanes, Local scale: pedestrian and cycle lanes, crossing roads and green and blue framework, rickshaw lanes The new city infrastructure includes a BRT and improved rail connections, to link with Raipur. The interchange nodes will become pressure points for urbanisation. How can development be controlled, or encouraged in more sustainable concentrations or forms? How can we articulate all these levels in these specific places, from the big to the small scale? Charles Correas plan for Navi Mumbai provides one example of how these issues can be managed together. 3. Space and water as social resources Water bodies, prevalent in the area, are the most significant social spaces. Their religious and functional importance supports their social use as gathering spaces, for washing and playing and for reflection. In the new city, the functional and social purposes of water are more segregated, but is there a risk that the social value of this important resource becomes too narrow? Are there ways of continuing to combine the different functions? Within the urban fabric, even in Raipur, courtyards perform both environmental and social functions. Charles Correa identifies the courtyard as a necessary feature of urban life: The courtyard is not simply a space, but a proportion of building to open sky. These open to sky spaces have a usability factor : 70% x 75% (75% functions outdoor, during 70% of the year) = 50% of an enclosed room, much cheaper than a built space, which raises the question: how do we manage these open to sky spaces when we build tall buildings? Correa says these spaces take several forms: courtyards and terraces: for cooking, sleeping the front door step: where children play,... the water tap or village well the principal open space used by the whole community
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A rehabilitation colony in Chandigarh: a planned development on a tight grid pattern, with intimate communal courts that achieves variety and a good proportion of built mass to open sky, with a high density 4. Positioning of the city How can the complexity of a real place be communicated? This is not simply about marketing, but about the kind of place that Naya Raipur will become and the direction of travel towards it. Although the future cannot be predicted, the aspirations for the city will inform its future and set forces in motion. The three preceding topics will only be realised if they are commonly understood to be aspects of the character of the new city. The first step in establishing Naya Raipur is the new administrative capital, but the objective is for a rich and diverse city with a broad range of functions. The Masterplan includes a variety of functional categories, such as Industry, Education and so on, but within each of these there can be great diversity and interaction: industrial use can range from high-tech through to home-based industries; education can be formal and academic, but through more employment-based education and training can also bridge the gap between rural and urban ways of life. This pattern of functional interactions will develop a character, by which the city will come to be known, but will also depend on the measures taken in the early stages of development and construction.
Naya Raipur aims to be more socially inclusive than Lavasa and more functionally diverse than Navi Mumbai. How can the new character be expressed?
Sites and techniques for testing A number of areas will be defined for the workshop as sites to explore the topics in a tangible way and show possibilities for future implementation. The areas will consider key boundaries of the city, the integration of existing villages into the urban fabric and a typical housing area. The teams should also consider wider areas, as described in the first part of the document and the test areas should act as a focus for wider ideas. We will also look carefully at some key sites in Raipur, to understand how certain existing aspects of urban life may be reprovided in the new city, whilst dealing with some of the difficulties. As well as drawing and writing, the workshop teams will make sketch models to explore and explain relationships of form and mass.
Application document for the workshop in Naya Raipur, India. Information : [email protected] / Application : [email protected]
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The early days will focus meetings and professionals tours. During the different openingcountries, ceremony, the authorities will gathering over two on weeks 21 various from split uplocal into three teams of have the chance express their views in toeach the participants their particular Then, the four, with to two local professionals team, one ofand them working in theexpectations. technical services NRDA leading committee will announce the composition of the teams, and they will begin working on the subject (Naya Raipur Development Authority). - without computers. After three days, the forum will take place. It is a key moment of the workshop where The early days the will first focus on meetings and work, tours. their During the opening and ceremony, the local authorities the teams will present elements of their first analysis, will freely exchange and will have the chance to express their views to the participants and their particular expectations. Then, debate with a local committee. During the second week, the team will finalize their productions; they will the leading committee announce the thegraphic teams, and they will begin working on the have access to computers in will order to hand in composition their writtenof and work that will be used during their subject - without computers. After three days, the forum will take place. It is a key moment of the presentation to the international jury.
The workshop will be organized according to the original method of Les Ateliers, which consists in
workshop where the teams will present the first elements of their work, their first analysis, and will freely exchange and debate with a local committee. During the second week, the team will finalize Composed of local players, representatives, city development executives, Raipur partners their productions; they will have access to computers in order to hand in Naya their written and graphicand work personalities from Les Ateliers network, the workshop jury is like a fourth team. Its function is not to rank that will be used during their presentation to the international jury.
the teams but to identify within the teams production the most relevant propositions for the local authorities Composed of local players, representatives, city development executives, Raipur partners to use. The workshop is not a contest; there is neither a prize nor a market to Naya win. What matters isand the from Les Ateliers network, the workshop jury isin like a fourth team. Its function not toused capacitypersonalities to produce analysis, new representations, and threads a collective way that can beis easily rank the teams but to identify within the teams production the most relevant propositions for the local for Naya Raipurs development.
authorities to use. The workshop is not a contest; there is neither a prize nor a market to win. What matters is the capacity to produce analysis, new representations, and threads in a collective way that can be easily used for Pueblas development.
Provisional schedule
Saturday, November 17 Sunday, November 18 Monday, November 20 From Tuesday, November 21 to Thursday, Oct. 23 Friday, November 24 Saturday, November 25 From Sunday, November 26 to Tuesday, Oct. 27 Wednesday, November 28 Thursday, November 29 Friday, November 30 Saturday, 1st of December
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Architecture & Natura Quarterly, Chandigarh: Forty Years After Le Corbusier, ANQ, Amsterdam, Netherlands Boo, K. (2012) Behind the beautiful forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Random House Correa, C. (2000) Housing and Urbanisation, Thames & Hudson Brosius, C (2010) Indias Middle Class: New forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity, Routledge, UK Khilnani, S. (2003) The Idea of India, Penguin, London Kolnad, G. (1994) Culture shock! India, Kuperard Jain, L (2002) Thematic Space in Indian Architecture, India Research Press Naipaul, V. S. (1998) India: A Million Mutinies Now, Vintage Paquot, T. (2004) Linde Cotes Villes (in French only) There are many books both by Charles Correa and about him and his work, all of which are worth reading. There are also many books about Chandigarh from many different perspectives, which are relevant.
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