Urban renewal project urban design

1. TAJ GANJ
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Typology: Urban Rejuvenation

2. • Taj ganj is a 400 year old market
district sharing the peripheral
skyline of the Taj Mahal.
• It includes clusters of bastis
(neighborhoods) which originally
started with the four ‘katras’ or
quadrants down towards the
southern gate of the Taj Mahal.
• It has since then expanded
consistently and also in the
process have developed groups
of slum dwellings around the
area.
Specific area under consideration for the Urban redevelopment of Taj Ganj extends from Western gate Road of theTaj
Mahal to the Eastern gate Fatehabad Road which includes the Taj Ganj area and the slums around.

3. • The active ‘streets as connectors’ align visitors
to the ethos of the ordinary people as heirs to
the cultural legacy along with the Taj.
• Like all roads, they lead to it; but more
importantly through this, begin urban
networking, and eventually, they weave the
fabric of the entire city of Agra.
• The proposals includes urban scale
development of streets by resurfacing the
carriage way provision of pedestrian foot
paths,
• cycle tracks, Landscape parks, seatings,
toilets, security infrastructure etc.
Street as a spatial spine

4. proposes a coherent but non-uniform urban design along stretches leading
to it, giving priority to non-motorised mobility through a radical change in
the visual texture of the place.
Cobbling ensures that vehicular traffic explicitly slows down; backed by
footpaths merging seamlessly with the road but delineated by bollards, the
street is a walker’s paradise. But allowing for multiple modes of transport.

5. AUTORICKSHAW STAND EAST GATE TOILET BOCK HORSE CART PARKING
WEST GATE PARKING
TO VIP CHOWK
SOUTH GATE STREET
SHILPGRAM PLAZA

6. • Amenities such as landscaped seating areas,
parking/ boarding areas for tangas, Cycle
rickshaws and battery operated carts, security
check posts. Toilet blocks and drinking water
facilities have been located at various places
across the project extent.
• Lighting and signage add stimulating layers of
navigation and experience to the place.
• The conflicting densities of the built and the green
fabrics, swarms of pedestrians and the restricted
vehicular movement.
• Street pavements, the emphasis has been on
vernacular materials- red sandstone, cobblestone,
perforated jail, and urban greening while
simultaneously preserving the existing green
spaces.

7. CHEONGGYECHEON- Stream Ecological
Restoration
Seoul, South Korea
Typology: URBAN RESTORATION

8. The restoration
of Seoul’s
Cheonggyech
eon, in South
Korea,is about
the return of a
historic canal
to the city that
had been
buried by a
large highway
.
The stream was used to play area by the children,
and folk events .took place in and along its banks.
These events happened during the annual and
seasonal holidays
Population increase, industrialization degraded the
water quality and the banks became slums. The
stream was nick named ‘ city’s cncer’ people
demanded cover the stream,butit was ignored by
the Japanese authorities until mid 1930s.
The construction to cover it finally began in 1958
and was completed in 1977.Cheonggyecheon
became Cheonggye road, and markets and
factories were built to it to lead korea’s
industrialization.

9. The Cheonggye elevated Motorway, built above the Cheonggye
Road, symbolized Seoul’s progress and korea’s modernization for a long
period of time and building constructed next to the highway .
Downtown Seoul was a place of deterioration and pollution, forcing
business HQs t shift to Gangnam, new sub- center . Industries here lost
competitiveness. Maintenance of the aging highway was another big
concern.
An in depth safety checkup conducted in august 2000 revealed
cracks and exfoliation in the upper slab. And insufficient load carrying
capacity due to the worn out concrete beams,imlying an inevitable
full-scale reconstruction.

10. The debate shifted from reconstruction of the highway to restoration
of the stream. Later, goals like historical values, eco-friendliness,
optimization in each sector.
Along with the deconstruction of the highway and restoring the
stream, the elements of heritage like stones bridges and monoliths
were also dug up and made use in the restoration.
Stream open again for the people of Seoul. Its not for pedestrian only
public space bringing water and vegetation into the center of a
dense metropolitan area of 25 million.

11. STREAM
The natural river that lived its most
glorious life during the 14th century
had slowly diminished into
becoming a drain during the
industrial revolution, as an origin for
various diseases, poor hygiene and
sanitation
HIGHWAY
Now the river was restored into a
clean waterways by demolishing
the highway that was
constructed over it.
AFTER
BEFORE

12. • Improve air quality ,water quality and quality of life.
• Reconnect the two parts of the city that were previously
divided by road infrastructure
• Reintroduce flora fauna species in ecosystem.
• Creation of an extensive new open space along the stream.
• Creation of pedestrian amenities and recreational spaces
• Construction of new bridges, reconnecting the urban fabric.
• Removal of elevated highway concrete structure.