Architecture Students Help Reclaim City Spaces

Bhubaneswar: The city’s architecture students couldn’t have asked for a better internship that too, without going through the rigmarole of applying and getting selected or rejected as the case may be. A 100 of them from different institutions in and around the city got to design 30 public spaces across the Temple City.

They designed and beautified under flyover spaces, plazas at major junctions, under-utilised spaces along roads, entry plazas to public buildings such as state museums, etc. These spaces typically lacked pedestrian safety, cleanliness and were mostly encroached by unauthorised street vendors. The objective of this project was to work with the locals who use the space on day-to-day basis such as residents, vendors and city authorities who maintain the space such as Traffic Police and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The project was the brainchild of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) under its innovative community engagement and place-making project, Bhubaneswar Public Spaces (BPS).

The designing of these spaces primarily focused on reclaiming the space and making it available for the citizens in the form of a free, easy accessible, safe and well-lit. A few of the projects also focused on improving the geometric designs of the junctions. BDA urban planners also assisted in the implementation.

For example, spaces where two-wheelers used to be parked are now clean, well-lit and landscaped public spaces, with clear segregation between two-wheeler parking and pedestrians with built-in seating. Similarly, the ‘I Love Bhubaneswar’ plaza was just a pause space for passersby. It now has a well-defined identity with a sculpture and a ‘selfie point’ for the youth. This is in contrast to its former visual clutter with hoardings and vendors.
The State Museum front area, one of the busiest junctions of the city leading to the Old Town on the one side and Puri on the other side, was taken up with a motive to make the space usable for the public by making an arranged parking, seating for people waiting for busses to Puri/Konark and visitors coming to the museum.

In this connection, an interactive workshop for architecture students on project for public spaces was organised at KIIT School of Architecture and Planning, where more than 150 students from KIIT School of Architecture and Planning, Piloo Mody College of Architecture and Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology participated. After getting the proposals from the students 30 projects were shortlisted for BPS across the city to make the State Capital more beautiful.

Some of these are:

Kalpanna Square, in front of Odisha State Museum and Roundabout, AG Square, near the proposed Museum of Urban History, Forest Park- Airport Square to Capital Hospital Square, Old Town Area- Debipadahara Tank with park, Old Town Area, Taleshwar Square entry to Old town Area, Mausima Square area near food stalls along the flyover and in front of the flyover, Power House Square near Nirman Soudha, 120 Battalion Square near MLA Colony and adjacent to Commissionerate Police Headquarters, Unit IX Food Street near St. Joseph High School, Puri Cuttack Road area under Maharishi College flyover, Shaheed Nagar area along NH opposite to Aayakar Bhavan, Vani Vihar Square  area under the flyover, Vani Vihar in front of Rama Devi College, Stadium Square to the World front, Kalinga Stadium area and commercial area in front of Gate No. 2, Jaydev Vihar Square area under the flyover and Acharya Vihar area under the flyover and near Planetarium and Acharya Vihar area in front of Science Park, Master Canteen, Kedargouri Plaza and BDA Frontage.