Un-cage the Jaali

The proposal redirects the road behind the Sidi Saeed Mosque and develops the entire land into a foreground for the Sidi Saeed jaalis. The proposed road directly connects to the Rustom Cama Marg and Khanpur road junction, providing smooth vehicular dispersion and control using the existing traffic signal. The intervention aims at developing public infrastructure that includes a newly merged AMTS bus stop (with the existing Lal Darwaza and Sardar Baug bus stop) and a tourist center. The tourist center would focus on visitors to the old city and this complex adding a new urban place for the old city and its surroundings. The place includes a public park and garden to cater to the functions of the existing maidan, display galleries, performance areas, temporary market spaces, eateries for an ever changing habitation, and an information center for visitors from and to the city, to know about the history, culture and background of Ahmedabad and to gather information about activities and events to further plan their visit. The design conceptualizes the orientation of the block in order to establish an axis towards the Jaali of the Sidi Saeed Mosque. The structural expression of columns in the spatiality of the mosques is taken as a reference and is interpreted it in the proposal as expression towards the city and the urban context. The proposal aims to free the ground and make the whole space accessible to the public by lifting the built blocks above on the first level and hence making the below space series of informal seating places for the public. The urban edge of the complex is now proposed to be without compound walls but rather layers of plinths, walkways and shops so as to establish a buffer between the fast moving traffic and the pedestrians and the whole complex. With an overall siting the proposal aims to develop an foreground to the jaali of the Sidi Saeed Mosques without disturbing the mosque and its function, developing a platform, a pause space for the regular public as well as the tourist visitors to appreciate the intricacy of the stone screen and solving the traffic island issue of the mosque complex, hence becoming a threshold for the city with sits between the old and the new.