Status: Built 2011
Role: Project Architect
Recognition: Special Mention - Young Designer of the Year 2014, Third Award - Re-thinking the Future Sustainability Award 2014
India's first Narrow Gauge Railways Heritage Park spread over more than 1 km in length. A railway heritage park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or improvised, and set aside for human recreation, enjoyment and awareness along with preservation of its existing historical context.
The visionary idea of ‘preserve, protect, and popularize’ the heritage of railway took shape of a ‘Railways Heritage Park’. But unlike ‘heritage parks’ in West which charge heavily to visitors making it a luxurious hobby, this park aims at popularizing the heritage history directly to public at bare minimum expense and integrate into their everyday being.
The 150 years of celebration for Narrow-Gauge Railways in Vadodara region envisioned into a heritage park giving opportunity to stimulate the exploration of future possibility of popularizing the not originally intended of local railway history by redefining the urban context into a dynamic, economy, ecofriendly, and less programmatic footprint on existing uses. A contribution by mint-fresh architecture students towards society: an act as a professional and responsible individual of social setup.
By and large it serves as: community gathering space for local residents; enkindling exhibition arena; and activity space for curious on-lookers, school students and railway enthusiast travelers. Through its architectural expression, it carries forward values that creates an ambience that will help ‘talk and celebrate’ railway heritage of Vadodara and highlights the ‘process and hidden hands’ behind the history makers. Recognizes existing eco-system and enhances the biodiversity by planting, weeding and re-planting trees, shrubs, flower-beds, creepers, path etc. such that they support it. The program evolved after studying the inference and implications of proposed existing site with entirely unique program of Heritage Park.
Design elements adapted for traffic calming like chicanes, neck downs, raised cross-walks, textured pavement enhances the pedestrian movement on the site which is parted by a 10.8 MT wide vehicular road promotes traffic-free zone on site. Railway’s junk material and souvenirs has been used like (except paver blocks) the benches, lanterns, stoppages, signage, boards, bells, panels out of rails and gazebo has been refurbished to operating state. Local landscape plants and construction material with labor selection within 10 miles radius of site reducing embodied energy impact.