From People-Centric to Vehicle-oriented and back
The re-evolution of Thane
Urban Design Report Thane
Semester 7
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Urban Design Report Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental studies June 2021-October 2021
Manasi Borade-1808
manasi.borade1611@gmail.com
Kanchi Gupta-1825
kanchigupta731@gmail.com
Piyali Mishra-1849
pialimishra13@gmail.com
Rishiraj Pujari-1859
rishirajpujari1221@gmail.com
Sneha Watwe-1880
sneha2watwe@gmail.com
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Contents Introducing the neighbourhood
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Point of enquiry
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Evolution of the city
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Evolution of Neighbourhood
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Development of typology through time
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Housing Typologies • Association of Typology with Density • General Zoning • About the typologies
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Effect of Industrial conversion • Impact on housing • Impact on workers
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Factors contributing to housing development
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Demographic -population growth
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Street Studies
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Future Development Plans
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Visions and Objectives
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Introducing the Neighbourhood The chosen neighbourhood,in Sector 4, is surrounded by Yeoor hills on the west and the Ghodbunder road on the east, this area has some famous recreation spots such as the Upvan lake, Viviana Mall, Hiranandani Plaza and Amrapali arcade. Manpada-Chitalsar is also home to some very old residential societies along with large informal settlements such as Vartak nagar. Thane City has seen rapid development in the last 2 decades owing to the close proximity to Mumbai, good infrastructure and lower prices as compared to other places in the vicinity. Earlier an industrial hub, most of the factory lands are now abandoned or converted to residential and commercial areas. The sector earlier had a lot of working factories, but has rapidly developed in the recent years into a residential hub with almost all the land taken up by big builders to form gated societies,some of them include Dosti Realty, Hiranandani etc. This development marks the neighbourhood as a ‘Dormitory’ town to Mumbai-such that this city functions as a residence for majority people working in parts of island city and the suburbs.
Fig. 1- Thane administrative boundaries
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Located on the north-western side of the state of Maharashtra, the Thane city is an immediate neighbor of Mumbai city and a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Also known as Elder sister of Mumbai, its close proximity makes it a connector between mainland Maharashtra and the island city and suburbs. The area taken up for study belongs to the western side of the city, an area that has witnessed large real estate market development and the coming up of a number of residential societies.
Fig. 2- Location of Thane and site with respect to larger context Source plan of selected neighbourhood: From Google Earth maps https://issuu.com/docs/kolshet_collective
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Point of Inquiry Certain relationships exist between the communities that existed or settled in this region earlier and the new gated communities which act as inserts in the established context. Gated societies are often developed in isolation and do not take into consideration the given context, these form individual elements or their own bubbles, that are basically inserted in an existing neighborhood already consisting of the natives and the migrant workers,and people living in the older societies. These gated and non-gated communities are interdependent and contrast each other in terms of the housing typologies,the physical, as well as non-physical aspects. The line of enquiry is how the population influx has created these bubbles of gated societies and what are its impacts on the socio-cultural relationships? and how the mass migration into Thane city and the real estate market development have complemented each other?
Fig.3- Bring people together for collective activities
Fig.4- Create employment opportunities
Fig.5- Promote diversity
Fig.6- Increased neighborhood safety
Fig.7- Create a sense of ownership
Fig.8- Introduce the human scale Advantages of shared spaces
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Fig.9- Growing homogeinity
Fig.10- No sense of community
Fig.11- Transit oriented development
Fig.12- No shared spaces
Fig.13- Lack of places of leisure
Fig.14- Restricted exposure to outside world
Fig.15- No acknowledgement of context
Fig.16- Caters to certain classes only Effects of increasing real estate development
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Fig.17- old Thane- Area close to railway station
Fig.18- old Thane- People oriented spaces
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Evolution of the city Timeline marking out larger infrastructural developments
Fig.19- Timeline of the city as a whole
Evolution due to industrialisation
Fig.20- Industrial development
Evolution from industrialisation to residential and commercial
Fig.21- I to R conversion
Source: CEPT Portfolio S 2021-Thane - Transformation of the Urban Core
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Evolution of Neighbourhood Thane has an ancient history dating back to 2500 B.C., when trade routes existed between western countries and India. Described and called by different names by different travelers, rulers (Mughal,Portuguese,Maratha etc) throughout centuries, eventually during British Raj it came to be known as ‘Thana’. Native Agri-koli-Warli communities existed since the beginning with their farms and pasture lands. The neighbourhood under study was majorly under these settlements and farmlands amongst the forests with Ghodbunder road as the trade route. This section expands on the evolution from native settlements to industrial lands and the overall conversions within the neighbourhood in the 20 year time period between 2000-2021.
Fig.22- before 1800’s, mostly farmlands and pastures owned by natives
Fig.23- 1947-1960, coming up of old residential G+3 structures
Fig.24- 1960-1995, Industrial development
Fig.25- 1995 onwards, Beginning of residential development source- https://www.findeasy.in/history-of-thane/
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Fig.26- 2000, The neighborhood was mostly industrial
Fig.27- 2005, Closing factories and coming up of residential societies
Fig.28- 2010, upcoming public utility and continuous residential development
Fig.29- 2015, MHADA colony developments
The evolution shows the rise of industries which brought in people for employment opportunities, and hence the beginning of the growth of the residential sector. further on, the closing of the industries due to certain factors, gave way to more cheap land for residential development and the drastic increase in residential areas is visible. it also affected the lives of the people working in the factories and both these combined factors affect the overall population growth in the city.
Fig.30- 2020, Mostly residential with more gated societies coming up
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Development of typology through time
Fig.44- Developing building typology through time Fig.31- generic section not representative of any area
The typologies are further looked at sectionally to identify and locate what exactly act as shared spaces and what caused the isolation of the communities and the effects these factors have on human relations.
Fig.32- Native settlements with farms and pastures and shared spaces
With the unified land settlement, a new class of land owners was created, who started developing residential societies, Class gap is created and the social spaces are reduced
Fig.33- Development of old residential societies with balconies
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Industrial development, natives losing land and working in the factories, walk/cycle to work in groups, the roads or pathways act as spaces for interaction
Infrastructure development to facilitate the development of the industrial sector, attracted more residential societies as well as informal settlements, Roads designed for vehicles only
Fig.34- Industrial development
Fig.35- beginning of the transit oriented development
Factories started closing down and shifting to other locations, some abandoned some converted to residential, widening of roads and still no consideration for human occupancy of the streets
Fig.36- Creation of isolated bubble communities
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Housing typologies This section looks at the changing human interactions with respect to changing housing typologies in the study neighbourhood.Housing typologies are of the following types• Informal settlements • Old residential societies • Gated societies with high boundary walls • High rise buildings with podium parking Current development where building is on a huge podium parking
informal settlements that grew around and closeby to factories
old residential societies which were still at a human scale
gated societies with high boundary walls
Fig.37- Different types of residential gated communities
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Association of typology with density 1 2
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1. planned gated high rises
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2. MHADA
3. Old residential
4.Slums
5. Factories
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Fig.38- Nolli plan to study density associated with typology
General zoning This map shows the general spread of the residential areas including informal settlements (slums) interspersed with the industrial lands and commercial areas
Fig.39- General zoning of the site
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About the typologies Informal settlements: These are generally G/G+1 structures that first developed incrementally around the factory lands and as the factories shut down,they turned towards commercial jobs,which included having street facing shops/garages etc whereas the main house lies at the back end.These kind of settlements are spread across the entire neighbourhood.Interactions happen on the street side of the houses
Fig.40- Informal settlements in 2021
Fig.41- existing settlement in neighbourhood
Old residential societies: These include G+3/4 storey buildings that came up before the construction of high rise residential towers. They are concentrated in the areas of Vasant Vihar,Shivai Nagar and Vartak Nagar.They are much more human in scale and do not seem to limit interactions as much as the new gated societies
Fig.42- Old existing societies in 2021
Fig.43- Old existing societies in neighbourhood
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Gated societies with high boundary walls: These are an observed general trend in the chosen neighbourhood in Thane and limit interactions between different society groups
Fig.44- gated societies in 2021
Fig.45- gated societies in neighbourhood
High Rise buildings with podium parking: These have developed rapidly in the last 20 years, along with the necessary amenities in their vicinity,making them self-sufficient or self-contained in a sense;only dependent on the migrants and labour in the informal settlements nearby for purposes as housework,construction etc
Fig.46-societies with a huge podium parking in 2021
Fig.47- Newer developments in the area
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Effect of Industrial conversion Impact on housing
Due to the population boom in Mumbai, which was unable to handle the loads of a large population at that time, many people shifted to Thane which was then referred as a suburb on the outskirts of Mumbai city. This prompted developers to provide housing to this large incoming population in Thane. Success of few Real Estate firms in the area after taking risks and coming up with residential projects in a highly industrial zone at that point of time prompted other real estate developers to invest in the area and create world class residential complexes-which turned out to be self-sufficient, inward-looking “gated societies”. Undertaking of various transport and infrastructure projects in Thane increased the connectivity between Mumbai and Thane and other parts of Maharashtra, which helped contribute to the housing market. Cheaper housing prices as compared to Mumbai
Impact on workers The conversion from industrial to residential or commercial affected the lives of the workers and their families. Loss of the factory job. Loss of land of original landowners which was taken up for industrial purpose and labour appointment after factory closure. need to shift to outside of the area for similar jobs in thane belapur industrial belt. need within
to shift to another job the same neighbourhood.
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Factors contributing to housing development Below is a map which explains the places of migration,the reasons,the current residence as well as the current jobs.
Fig.48- Map of Migration
Fig.49- Proximity to greenery and nature
Fig.50- Lower house prices
Fig.51- Employment opportunities
Fig.52- Infrastructure development
source- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thane/in-20-yrs-more-than-100-heavy-industries-have-shut-shopin-thane/articleshow/24295012.cms
20 Due to good connectivity and jobs in the island city and suburbs, it functions well as a dormitory.As a result the interactions between different social groups remains restrictive,and generally happens within certain bubbles of the gated communities due to provision of all amenities within the same area. The next section explores all the different types of interactions and relationship patterns that happen within the study neighbourhood and how the street functions as an important element when it comes to such interactions
Fig.53- Connectivity with Mumbai. Source- https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-property-rates-so-high-in-Mumbai-Thane-and-Navi-Mumbai
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Demographic- Population growth The following graph shows the population growth in 10 years' leaps between 1991-2021.As evident there has been steady growth between 1991-2011,but the last decade has witnessed a remarkable growth in population from 2 million to 13 million, owing to housing market and infrastructure development. Amongst the migrants from Mumbai to thane are the service sector demographic, the senior citizens and also families with children suffering from respiratory illnesses(Shifting owing to cleaner air quality and greenery)
Fig.54- population shift over time.
Fig.55- graph showing population over time.
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Street studies Based on the Inferences drawn from the neighbourhood stories, the most frequented locations within the study area were studied further to understand the activity patterns and usage of space at a much zoomed in level
Fig.57- closed shops because of Covid 19
Fig.56- street vendor activities and small shops
Fig.58- small shops along the road and parking on road
Fig.59- section through road showing vehicular movement
23 One of the most frequented and busy streets in the neighbourhood is the Amrapali shopping Arcade located in Vasant Vihar area.It is visited by people from the gated societies and informal settlements alike.In a sense it is one point of interaction between different society groups.The street remains crowded during the day due to roadside vehicle parking as well as the traffic during school hours,due to the presence of the Vasant Vihar High School(VVHS) right opposite the arcade.Open fruit markets line the backside of the complex,whereas common shops face the street side cater to all
Fig.61- street side shops that cater to all
Fig.60- activity on road adjoining major market and school
Fig.62- open fruit market along with formal shops
Fig.63- Street vendors directly on road, less safety
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Street studies One of the most popular tourist attraction in the study neighbourhood and in Thane west is the Upvan lake and the promenade around it,flanked by plaza spaces,steps used as seating that lead down towards the lake, boating etc.Every year in January, the Sanskriti Arts Festival takes place where various performances are organized by constructing stages in the lake.It is a very rich cultural atmosphere,with programs oriented towards different interest groups,thus facilitating intermingling of people.
Fig.65- broken walkways and improper planning
Fig.64- Highly visited road along the lake
Fig.66- plaza jutting into water with some shops
Fig.67- vehicular movement along lake
25 Another frequently visited street is the Hiranandani Meadows food street,which tends to attract local youth who have completed their 10+2 education,for jobs in this area.It is also the place where migrants prepare and sell the local dishes from their native towns/states.
Fig.69- footpaths being consumed into the roads
Fig.68- wide roads that are only transit oriented
Fig.70- poor conditions for padestrian access
Fig.71- highly transit oriented neighbourhood
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Fig.72- Character 1 - a route marking major utilities around the upvan lake
Fig.73- Character 2 - A wider route is traversed that includes viviana mall, Singhania school as well as the market
After mapping out movements and interactions of various people, this map was generated to mark out the major spots for people to meet for various purposes.
Fig.76- Map showing major locations for people inter actions
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Fig.74- Character 3 - A route that goes through a lot of residential areas and the mall
Fig.75- Character 4- a route through the older parts of the neighbourhood
People density was marked out to study the relation between the types of public utility and how it is used by the people.
Fig.77- People density map
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Future development plans
To further understand the nature of development of the region, we looked at certain ideas proposed by various big groups for the ‘growth’ of the city, but even such advancements are all focused on the transit and commercial growth, the development is not imagined for the betterment of the quality of life but rather as just accessibilty to the city at the cost of nature and the human scale. The idea of developing the neighbourhood as a whole is missed out completely.
The quality of life is only determined by availabilty of luxurious flats, malls, organised retail shops, similar amenities in gated communities and the rate of infrastructure development in terms of highways and metros. Sources:•https://www.epcworld.in/p/post/infrastructure-projects-to-trigger-a-boom-inrealty-demand-in-thane •https://realtynxt.com/2018/02/17/thane-upcoming-megapolis-mmr/ •https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/real-estate/the-next-big-real-estatebattle-thane-or-navi-mumbai-5752871.html •https://www.proptiger.com/guide/post/neighbourhood-watch-ghodbunder-roadpokhran-road
List of Upcoming/proposed Infrastructure projects -
-The Thane –Wadala Metro 4 -Mumbai Metro Line 4A-an extension of Mumbai Metro 4 from Kasarvadavali-Gaimukh -Mumbai Metro Line 5 -Thane- Borivali underground tunnel -Phased Waterways project between south Mumbai,Thane and Vasai; RO-RO waterways -Thane-Ghodbunder elevated corridor -New Flyovers at LBS Marg near Castle Mill, MG Road at Naupada, and the third at Vandana Talkies. -Kopri Bridge widening -Proposed allotment of 113 Ha plot to reputed higher education institutes(eg ICT) for setting up -campuses -Tata Cancer Hospital & Shankar Netralaya – land being allotted to two medical institutions of repute -Elders’ paradise & working women’s hostel – state-of-the-art old age home and working women’s -hostel -Central Park (35 acres) and Northern park (22 acres) -Proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train -Virar Alibaug Multi-Modal Transport Corridor -CST-Thane Underground Railway Line The development is very homogenous, it does not take into account the human nature, the diversity or the idea of a community, it completely sidetracks what the people may actually need in order to belong to the place.
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Visions and Objectives As a matter of fact Thane was always a developing city from a tribal village to the upcoming metropolis, it continues to be a developing city with time. But the future development focuses less on interaction between people. Thus we tried to map and study a selected area which we envision as a city center. After studying the site, interventions were tried on how the area can be developed to make it more people friendly. Based on the Architectural Design projects ,5 plots were selected and studied further along with the edge conditions of the roads adjacent to them.
Fig.78- master plan marking out the plots chosen for design intervention
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• Shift from infrastructure focused development to a more holistic people friendly growth of the neighborhood • Improve walkability, promote active transport (cycling, walking, jogging, running) and incorporate physical activity in daily commute to improve health of the society as a whole
Site 3 Site 1
Site 2
Fig.79- master plan marking out factors that affect the selected plots
32 • Activating the road and street to form shared spaces that encourage interactions between different kinds of users and hence increase connections • Increase sensitivity to the natural history around with the help of native people
Fig.80- Site strategies
33 • Promote the development of the native and informal settlements • • Break down the isolated bubbles and create a sense of community and ownership • • Provide spaces for people to spend time outside of their homes and connect more with their immediate context
Fig.81- planned functions according to the development plan
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The neighbourhood under study in Thane changed over the course of time from being peoplecentric to becoming vehicle-oriented.It is a necessity to bring this people-centricness back and make public spaces much more accessible and free for the public,for use by people of all ages and backgrounds.It is necessary to break the isolated bubbles of the newly established gated societies and to promote intermingling, inclusion as a society and facilitate learning experiences.