Author: T Tanishka
Site Location: Hyderabad, Telangana
Institute: Sri Venkateshwara College of Architecture
Advisor: Krishna Priya
Description
“Transforming abandoned mills into inclusive third places of memory, dialogue, and belonging.”
As cities become denser, faster, and increasingly privatized, the everyday citizen is left with few places to simply pause, gather, or belong. This thesis explores the necessity, relevance, and architectural possibilities of Third Spaces in contemporary Indian cities. This architectural inquiry seeks to go beyond conventional redevelopment strategies and envisions brownfield regeneration as a catalytic process, where architecture serves as a medium for, reconnecting, and re- imagining.
Once alive with the hum of looms and the pulse of workers, DBR Mills, Hyderabad now lies silent—its walls weathered, its gates locked, its presence reduced to a forgotten void in the heart of the city. Yet within its ruins rests an unrealized potential, Memory, character, and identity waiting to be reimagined. This thesis proposes re-imagining DBR Mills as a multidisciplinary hub and equitable “third place,” while connecting it to Hussain Sagar Lake where the city can pause, gather, celebrate, and belong. Rooted to where it stands and grounded in character and memory, while introducing new spatial narratives, the proposal reclaims DBR Mills as a regenerative common—open, inclusive, flexible, and ever-adaptive that caters to the ever-changing needs of the city.
Drawings
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