Status : Completed in 2021
Client : Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation

CnT Architects won the Street Beautification project at a National Level Competition. 

Vishakapatanam, the 3rd cleanest city beckoned a proposal for the beautification, design of the NMT (Non-Motorized Transit) infrastructure and branding of the streets. It would include streetscape design, landscaping and intersection redesign under Smart Cities Mission. 

Our design heeded to the city’s value for tourism as a port city, prominent health facilities and its cultural heritage as the main inspiration for aesthetics. Developing a strong street character, local to the city was pivotal in the project. The first challenge on the streets was to resolve safe pedestrian walkways and formalizing carriageway widths, while maintaining dedicated space for vendors . The major focus was shifted from just vehicular movement and there was equal distribution of focus to all elements that form an Indian street. The issue of unorganized parking, cluttering the road has been tackled through nuanced designs for the streetscape, the zoning of the road and the street furniture. Refuge islands in a mid-block crossing are provided in-between more than two lanes. Cycle tracks were imagined in line with PBS ( Public Bicycle Sharing ) project on the beach road and further development to promote cycling among the locals and strengthen the last mile connectivity. 

The space for trees and utilities has been designated away from the path of the pedestrian traffic. The footpath zoning system has been followed across all the streets: divided into three main zones: the frontage zone, the pedestrian zone, and the furniture zone. “Complete streets” that make walking safe, comfortable, and convenient . Street furniture: Seating, lighting poles, dustbins etc. has been designed to reflect the local aesthetics. Junctions and pedestrian plazas are redesigned to incorporate social activities, promote local culture and Spaces provided for local economic activities. The client expressed a desire to evoke the ideas of living in a treehouse, which was reinterpreted in the proposition, ‘Living in the realm between the earth and the sky’. The house is hung 4.5 mts. high over a black granite stone wall on one side and light metal columns on the other side, creating a weather protected unenclosed space below, that acts as a threshold to the site as well as an informal open living space on the ground. The resultant transparency in the lower level allows a flow of landscape across the site evoking the aura of living as a part of nature.