UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER COMPETITION

Project Type

International Competition

Project Output

Design and Build Competition

Project Length

Won: Second Position

Organization

University of Westminster + NASA

Location

NOIDA, India

Year

2017

TEAM

Husain Zaidi, Arko Roychodhury, Farhan Sarfaraz, Udit Bhardawaj

MY ROLE and PROJECT SUMMARY

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!

Video Documentation

This is the fnal video submitted as part of the proposal. The video documents the journey through the process and the fnal state of the park. We documented the entire process right from cleaning the site, procuring the watse materials, creating the swings, musical instruments and other elements of the park from it, carrying out construction, local underpriviledged children using the park, NGO’s conducting classes for children in the dedicated area, adding lights to the park to be safe and operational and night, local markets seggregating their waste as a result and use of vermicompost, and PWD fxing the drain adjacent to the park.

Concept and Documentation Panel

The following panel was submitted as a documentation of the process and the ideas behind the design. We identified the issues and needs of the residents around the site and then designed a proposal with solutions that take into consideration those issues and addresses them. We used only the waste materials to build the entire park and the swings and musical instruments in it. We also had a dedicated stage area for the NGO, a waste management system in place, a gate for the safety of the users, and involvement of local development authority.
Please read through the entire panel to get more in-depth insight into the process and design thinking in place.

Recognition

Me and Arko presented to the jury from University of Westminster, at Purnima University, in Jaipur, on January of 2017. We won the competition and were awarded with the second position trophy. Our work was also recognized by the city and in architecture community. Our project was published in two newspapers and ‘Architect and Interiors India’ magazine.