Re-Imagining the Coastal Harborscape of Puthiyappa, Kozhikode - Reviving the Coastal Livelihoods Through Integrated Fisheries Infrastructure

Author: Asna A S
Site Location: Puthiyappa, Kozhikode
Institute: MES College of Architecture
Advisor: Ar. Amal Mohamed Ali

Description

A harbour is more than a place where boats arrive; it is a landscape of people, labour, exchange and everyday life. Puthiyappa, one of Kozhikode’s important fishing harbours, has evolved through these rhythms for decades. Yet increasing mechanisation, spatial congestion, inadequate infrastructure and fragmented public access have created a harbour that increasingly serves its operations at the cost of the people who sustain them.
This thesis re-imagines Puthiyappa as a shared coastal commons where the fisherman, fish vendor, boat worker, migrant labourer, local resident and visitor each have a legitimate place within the harbour.
The proposal reorganises the existing harbour into an integrated network of landing, auction, processing, repair, commerce, welfare and public spaces. Heavy operational movement is separated from pedestrian life, while markets, women-centred livelihood spaces, worker amenities, community facilities and a continuous waterfront connect the working harbour back to the city.
Rather than treating infrastructure as an isolated functional requirement, the project uses it as a means to redistribute access to safer workplaces, better livelihoods, shared amenities and the waterfront itself. By building upon Puthiyappa’s existing social and economic networks, the proposal seeks not to replace the harbour, but to make more of it available to more people.