Firm： The Blank Slate

Type： Landscape + Planning › Public Park Urban Green Space Masterplan Transport + Infrastructure › Bicycles

STATUS： Concept

Located between Lohapool Chowk and Variety Square, Sitabuldi Market is only about a kilometer-long bustling market street, slithering its way through the ensemble of Nagpur city, which can also be called the heart of India, owing to its central placement. The overflowing pedestrian load is combined with increased vehicular traffic and on-street parking try to co-exist, that end up overpowering each other, hindering the function of each.

The design aimed at making this important market street’s human assets (customers, shopkeepers, and hawkers) a top priority along with shaping its identity as a prominent public space. Apart from paying attention to the concerns it posed, the design proposal also identified the existing potentials as a part of the planning process. By identifying and utilizing these potentials, the design does not limit itself to the main market street but also permeates into selected secondary routes that disperse from it. In this connection, one finds multiple focal points that allow for a typical Nagpurkar to pause, reflect, grow, and express.

Vision Plan’s Key Improvements:

1. Transform Sitabuldi Street into a permanent landmark that is dynamic and multifunctional and changes throughout the day

2. Increase pedestrian walkways while streamlining vehicular movements for an enhanced shopping experience

3. Improved transit and pedestrian connectivity with an NMV lane for bikes and dedicated e-rickshaw in the shopping zone.

4. Enhanced streetscape elements that include green nodes, seating, portable toilets, face-lifting of existing buildings, and pedestrian-friendly plazas

5. Creation of food bazaar, dedicated informal shopping zone, and areas for a night market

6. Inclusive and barrier-free space by minimal use of built elements

7. Introduction of pedestrian-friendly urban parks and plazas to activate the street to non-shopping users

8. Inculcating a street culture catering to fitness, arts, food, and leisure

9. Involving the community in the process of placemaking to ensure quick feedback and emotional connection to the street

A vigorous exercise in ‘tactical urbanism’, all the interventions are low cost, replicable, and easy to execute with little effort, yet manage to create a valuable solution with a significant impact.