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DESIGN STATEMENT

Pandemic Resilient Market, Bahria Town Lahore

This Community has the capacity of 3000 people in form of 550 families. The residential divisions of the community include individual houses, low-rises (up to 3 families/units per floor per block) and mid-rise complexes (up to 7-story apartments). The community has shared amenities including; a Primary school, a community mosque, commercial sector, a community hall, playground and a gymnasium.

Existing master plan has centralized amenities, which are accessible from the road on the west and they serve 3000 users of the community. There is an increased influx of users at certain times of the day, such as; during the school starting and dismissal time, the main users are students, between 1600 to 1900 hours, the commercial area remains very active, and finally the mosques remain active 5 times a day and very busy during the Friday prayer. Under normal circumstances, the circulation space provided for amenities is enough based on their functions. However, in a pandemic situation, these amenity spaces are not able to take the user loads because of the precautionary measures.

The idea is to split amenities into several parts in order to avoid the crowding during the pandemic. It could be done by adding a market space including programs such as; utility store, bakery, tandoor and grocery store. Keeping in mind the importance of site selection, north side of the existing community is chosen for the project because of the presence of mid and low-rise apartments towards the north which form a very dense area due to the number of residents. The newly proposed market and existing commercial area are located at the opposite ends. Second consideration to place the market is site’s longer axis which must be parallel with the road.

The market modules are placed, right in front of the existing pedestrian circulation path, this helps minimize the user walking distance. The modules’ structure and location create out-scribe circulation which maximizes the customer and shopkeeper interactive edge. The built out-scribe circulation is accessed through narrow entrance (filtering 1 by 1 and maintaining the user order) and wide exit. The green spaces between the market’s modules act as buffer zones. The floor pattern organizes the people’s movements. There are vertical membranes at the edges of green spaces which help in defining movement pattern. This market area is a pedestrianized area and car parking provisions are seen in design. Local brick, stone and bamboo are used in landscape design.