Building anew in old quarters of historic districts is a challenge. More so especially if the city is Lucknow, the capital of the Awadh Empire then and the capital of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh now.
Our Fourth Year Architectural Design Studio “Housing in Quaiserbagh” picked up this Architectural Challenge of creating a neighbourhood that encapsulated all the traditional values, the sense of community, that the older habitats provided and at same time enabling a contemporary style of living. The Housing was to be designed to accommodate a cross section of the social strata. It would consist of Units for singles, couples, family, extended families; and also ‘shop-house’ units where housing is enmeshed with a commercial aspect to it – something quite prevalent in the historic districts of Lucknow. It also consisted of a community space whereby the students could choose the kind of space they want to design based on their understanding of the city and its requirements.
Tutors: Khudeja Patel, Ruark Figueiredo, Abhijeet Doshi, Prateek Banerjee, Aamir Sourathia
Housing in Quaiserbagh: Charmie Daftary
“An intense documentation showcased a wide array of housing typologies within the historic core of Lucknow. Each typology had its own configuration of how the spaces were arranged and used. A very distinct one was houses with shops, where the sanctity of the house was maintained with the public nature of the shop.
The project revolved around the concept of bifurcating the spaces and enabling a smooth transition from public to private. This has been attempted while assembling not only internal spaces of a dwelling but also the entire housing complex.
Courtyards with shops opening to the streets have emerged as focal points for public interaction, while the internal ones provide safe gathering & congregation spaces for the residents of the complex.”
