Revitalization of Public Open Spaces in the walled city

Jaipur is one of the main tourist places in India and one of the key node of the golden triangle tourism circuit. It is the city of rich heritage and culture. Jaipur is a well-planned city with a myriad of different types of open spaces, including chowks(plazas), lakes and parks. The function and the character of each public space plays an important role in the city’s social life. Consequently, these public open spaces and their characters have changed, as they are now reserved for merely utilitarian purposes, and have ceased to function as facilitators for social interaction. The main aim of the project is to improve the sociability of the city by restructuring vacant and misused open spaces, reorganising them into well-programmed opportunities for recreation, and providing improve social and physical infrastructure. This Urban Design project focuses on two distinct public open spaces in the old city of Jaipur, Jaleb Chowk and Talkatora Lake. These two projects are part of the Smart City area-based development. In Jaipur, the city place, Jantar Mantar and Hawa Mahal are the most visited tourist attractions. At present, the facilities including ticketing, information center for these monuments are at different places and disorienting the tourist. Jaleb Chowk is the important square as it is surrounded by these important monuments. The idea is to revitalise Jaleb Chowk as a foreground for these monuments. Through this revamp facilitate tourist activities considering the extreme climate of Jaipur, to create a robust public realm and there is a potential to connect all the monuments through Jaleb chowk. The programmatic idea is to provide on-ground and underground parking, pedestrian circulation, the adaptive reuse of existing underutilised heritage structures into tourist orientation centre, new facility building, places for small and large events, food and retail zone. In order to improve the quality of life of the neighbourhood, the revitalisation of Talkatora Lake is one of the proposed urban design projects. Considering the extreme climatic condition of Jaipur, the importance to revive the lake and to reconnect the people with the same are the main objectives for the project. The revitalisation will improve the deteriorating condition of the lake and will also strengthen the connection with two Parks located on two edges: JaiNiwas garden and Pondrik park. The adaptive reuse of existing Badal Mahal into viewing gallery: The dilapidated structure located between the JaiNiwas garden and Talkatora Lake is part of the revitalisation. The two projects will lead to restructuring other open spaces which are underutilised like Chogan Stadium and connecting the whole network of open spaces in the precinct will provide various interactive areas for the people. This urban regeneration allow people to move and live better in the city, to become part of local events and to reach public spaces easily. The idea is to improve the overall experience for both the citizens as well as tourists.