Kolkata
2000-2004

This is a vibrant new city centre – energised though the interaction of the many diverse activities it contains. There is a wide spectrum of land-uses, ranging from apartment houses and office buildings, to restaurants and shops (some located in a large air-conditioned shopping area, and others in the narrow bazaar-streets one finds throughout India).

The elements that unify all these diverse uses are the pedestrian streets that traverse from one end of the site to the other, climaxing in an open-air kund at the focal point at the centre of the main plaza. From this plaza, steps connect down to the pedestrian streets between the buildings at the Northern end of the site. Facing south, at the other end, are the apartment houses. The non-air-conditioned market is in the form of a series of stepped-back terraces, so as to increase cross-ventilation. The air-conditioned shopping centre is organized around a central atrium- and anchored by the presence of two large Department Stores at either end.

Combining shops, a wedding hall, a multiplex, offices and apartments, this City Centre in the heart of Salt Lake City in Kolkata, provides community and public spaces, both covered and open-to-sky, that are at the scale of the city, and open to all its citizens.