HUMANIZING PEDESTRIAN-PUBLIC REALM IN GURGAON

Abstract

Indian cities are experiencing unprecedented physical, economical, infrastructural and populational growth in the recent years with advent of foreign investment and policy changes which led to the sudden economic surge of the 1990s. But this phenomenon has been of selective up gradation and only certain cities have benefitted from it, including the city of Gurgaon. The economic growth of the city is an urbanization magnet and has attracted a population migration of the classes and therefore the masses leading to demarcated clustered habitation in the form of gated communities on one hand and shanty towns on the other. This study will interpret the idea of �â� � isolated utopias�â� � embodied by a �â� � Millennium City�â� � like Gurgaon in terms of a population bias that is created with the social and physical demarcation enforced by the gated communities/walled enclosures/fortified enclaves and its direct impact on the pedestrian realm who are essentially the blue collar migrant workers and are left to fend for themselves in this post-suburbia nouveau-metropolitan city which follows a very automobile oriented development model. The thesis will attempt to address the various pedestrian related woes that are coexistent in a city that is following a rampant island-to-island movement pattern which is very vehicle oriented and completely outcastes a very significant non-vehicle owning population. The selected study area of MG Road in Gurgaon is taken as a small scale representation of the larger problem at hand. The various aspects of the area are looked into to help establish the issues that are plaguing the pedestrian population. An in-depth study follows that informs about the street hierarchy, street front and land use while also taking help of Depthmax software to help establish a measure of connectivity and accessibility in the area between the two metro stations. Finally the solutions are suggested in the form of some guidelines for future development in a the city that is promising an enormous surge in gated communities as well as design proposals for the selected areas of intervention.