Public space
Urban Bricolage
Urban Bricolage was the winning entry in the Reweave Kozhikode competition. The national level design competition organized by the IIA-Calicut Centre invited proposals to reimagine and revitalize the 150-year-old Comtrust weaving factory along with its surrounding areas into active public spaces for the city of Kozhikode.
Like every tier II city, Kozhikode is in dire need of quality open spaces which is difficult to identify in fast-growing urban centres owing to land and economic pressures.
The Comtrust precinct and the area around the Mananchira present themselves as an opportunity to recycle them into quality public spaces. Located in the city’s centre among other important public buildings, the Comtrust precinct attracts large movements of people. Through careful interventions, it could be developed into an active urban centre open and accessible to a wide range of people and activities.
To make the precinct a coherent public space, the first step is to reimagine it as an urban block. This is done by reorganizing traffic along the periphery and by removing the fences that separate the different open spaces from each other.
Furthermore, the traffic is streamlined in carriageways of uniform width and the recovered areas are added to the pedestrian network. A promenade on the west connects important government buildings and the pond. Designated vending zones, ample lighting, sufficient urban seating, traffic-calming measures, and safe crossings make the precinct a pedestrian-friendly urban block.
The Mananchira Square connects the playgrounds and the park along the pond and provides a grand setting for the Comtrust building. By selectively removing a few buildings from the Comtrust complex, the Square continues across the complex and connects with the precinct’s western edge creating an easy pedestrian thoroughfare. Thus, the edges of the Mananchira pond are activated, and the precinct becomes a connected fabric. The Comtrust complex is revitalised with activities to attract more people redefining the precinct as an active urban centre.
The old factory is reimagined as a place for people from all walks of life by accommodating different programs such that it forms a ‘Bricolage’. The complex is divided into zones, and programs are proposed depending on the edge conditions that they face. From converting the main building into an Industrial museum to including a Foodhall, Co-work spaces, Maker’s ateliers, expo spaces etc. different kinds of programs are juxtaposed with each other.
Each of the different zones is meant to be developed as a separate project through different investors, designers, and clients. The complex could, therefore, feature multiple expressions true to an active city centre and attract multiple streams of capital for redevelopment. Furthermore, the different programs complement each other and generate a steady flow of finance through rent, events, and active footfall for the continual upkeep of the complex.
A toolkit of situated interventions
The design focuses on retaining the heritage value of the buildings. The proposed changes are therefore not capital intensive nor heavy on transformations. Instead they are done with a view of adaptability to future change of functions, and reversibility where the buildings can be restored to their original state.
To retain the original qualities of the factory buildings while making them compatible with modern needs, a toolkit of strategies is proposed. The strategies are broadly classified into light, reversible interventions that leave the original structures untouched. That way, the factory spaces could potentially be restored to their original state if needed. More permanent changes include creating a doorway or enlarging an opening, and selective replacement of materials for durability and sustainability. Each of these strategies in the toolkit can be expanded and detailed further on case-by-case bases for the individual buildings to create a situated set of interventions.
Project Details
Site
Kozhikode, Kerala
Design
2022
Program
Adaptive re-use & urban rejuvenation
Project type
National level competition | click here for competition website
Team
Kapilan Chandranesan, Yamini Thaila Sridharan, Monisha Jayakumar
Awards
Winner – Reweave Kozhikode national design competition
Publications
Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects, November ’22 (pg45-47)