Author: Sanskar Khatri
Site Location: Parel, South Mumbai
Institute: Rachana Sansad’s Academy of Architecture
Advisor: Prof. Neha Panchal

Description

A jewel of Railway’s industrial heritage, the future of historic structures, the ecology, and the active industrial economy of the Parel Locomotive Workshop appears uncertain because of the Central Railway’s Parel Terminus proposal. This thesis critically analyses the idea of a terminus in an infrastructurally-exhausted locality, and attempts to make a counter-proposal: A cultural and ecological park for the people, open to all.

When the grounds of the Parel Loco Workshop become available for the public as the Loco Iron Cultural Park, they make quality recreation and cultural spaces accessible for all. This thesis sees equitability not just as designing for access and utility. Rather, it imagines equitability as designing for experience – experiences that can be garnered by the wealthy and the underprivileged; by children, adults as well as the elderly; by able-bodied and the differently-abled alike. True equity does not simply reflect through design decisions, it is lived in small everyday experiences through design thought. This project attempts to manufacture such subtle experiences, giving to each one what they demand at different scales – a space to rest, or a building to perform, or a job to sustain family.

Drawings

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