Mixed-Use Residential Neighbourhood at Roha (MURN)

(Semester 7)

Housing is the core need of human beings providing shelter, safety, privacy for them and their respective families. A community of such homes where respective families live together that provides them with security, shared space, recreation spaces, amenities, all within close vicinity, gives rise to a neighbourhood. It provides the residents with social security, ease of living, identity, and harmonious living. A housing community that has a mix of individual, family type and gender help keep the societal balance and cater to the growing needs of the family. This enables the real possibilities for them to remain within the community for generations increasing their sense of belonging and connectedness to the neighbourhood. Housing in the cities has been predominantly dictated by the developers in the last few years. The housing units provided are generally based on the number of rooms & square footage. It ignores the fact that all families and family sizes are unique in the ways they live and their need of space. The housing community should cater for those needs. Variation in the typology of residential units should be encouraged, as it provides a genuine choice for families to reside in. These could vary between, single units, semi-detached units, rowhouses, apartments, duplex apartments etc.

The Site

In Maharashtra, the industrial town of Roha is one of Maharashtra’s growing MIDC areas and is well known for its chemical and pharma industry hub. Located at Raigad district and connected by road and railways, it has experienced fast growth in the recent past. The Dighi port and the DMIC corridor form an important node around it which further strengthens the road and rail connectivity. Vile Bhagad, another MIDC area, is around 40kms away from Roha and has emerged as the hub of steel industries. All these activities result in significant job creation, thereby leading to strong demand for housing in the area.

Broad Programme Distribution

With the Roha MIDC developing into a pharmaceutical hub, the demand for larger MIDC offices catering to the direct management of the pharmaceutical industry would arise. Mixed-use residential neighbourhood development is proposed that shall cater to the overall growing needs of the town. 70% of the site development shall be dedicated to residential housing and 30% to retail and commercial use. This could be dedicated to providing shops, office, restaurants, small theatres, halls and other spaces that would cater to the growing needs of the upcoming people who shall be working in the industries here in Roha. It could be a combination of these in the proportion decided by students. It shall be up to the students to define structure to the brief and area allocation for the same in design discussion with the faculty. The integration of residential and commercial would play a key role in the designing of the overall housing scheme.

Broad User Analysis

Proximity to the MIDC zone indicates the predominant residents of the housing colony would be employees of these industries. These could be people from varied geographic locations, varied family compositions and varied posts. They could be singles, couples, or large families. Hence it becomes imperative to design unit types that suit this large variety of people and at the same time share common grounds for cultural and social exchange. For the proposed housing scheme to be efficient, factors such as the provision of convenience stores, walkability, social spaces, integration of the site with the city, need to be worked on along with services and other utilities.

Mentors: Vinit Mirkar, Ruark Figueiredo, Khudeja Patel, Ajay Ghag, Abhijeet Doshi, Prateek Banerjee, Abishek Ray