The University of Westminster organized a very large scale competition in 2017. Their idea through this competition was to transform at least a hundred under-utilized public spaces in and around India. The mission of the competition was to create a positive impact on the environment around us, for the betterment of society and helping mass public benefiting through our design. We had about 3 months to design, document and execute the first phase of the project. This was especially challenging because to execute a large-scale project, we had to arrange for funds on our own.

I was the Project Leader and had recruited 3 people from my college to participate in the competition. I was responsible for coming up with the core idea and beliefs of our proposal, designing and planning at the urban level, team management (assigning roles and responsibilities to the other members) and site coordination, managing the documentation and making the final presentation. Our idea was to use this project as an opportunity to work towards the betterment and welfare of the underprivileged strata of society. It was a chance to execute and turn into reality, what we proposed at ANDC competition earlier that year. (Please check out the ANDC competition project as well for more details). Keeping the core values the same, we had to make any modifications to ft this particular challenge. Time and Money were a big constraint, we used only waste materials in an innovative way to build the park, largely cut down on the project cost. We also collected funds from the local market. We involved NGOs to seek their volunteer help and also dedicated a sector of the project area as space for them to use in the future for the benefit of underprivileged children and women. We finished the project in 2 Phases and it took a total of a Lil over 4 months to finish the entire project. 

I pitched the final presentation to the jury from the University of Westminster, at Purnima University, Jaipur, India. We won the competition and were awarded the second place trophy! The jury loved the scale of our project and the thought behind not only reviving a disused public space but also using the opportunity for the betterment of underprivileged. They also appreciated the fact that the impact of our project was so huge in the area, that the government officials at Public Works Department got involved and fixed the broken drain adjacent to our site, to ease the access to the park! 

Our project was also recognized widely in the city, and was published in the local newspaper and was featured in the monthly edition of ‘Architect and Interiors India’ magazine!