An National Open Design Competition to reimagine the existing and almost defunct bus terminal in the heart of present day Jaipur.
The design uses vertical segregation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic to arrive at a design where there is minimal crossing of paths of the three major traffic types – pedestrian, local private and public transport, and interstate bus traffic. The ground is treated as large pedestrian plaza that fronts the site, and continues as an edge strip thereby integrating the site into the everyday hustle-bustle and consciousness of the city. Activity specific to Bus travel and support functions are housed in a single terminal building lifted above the plaza, that feeds passengers to the two platform areas through over head or subterranean conduits that bypass the bus causeway and the pedestrian plaza for efficient access. The buses, on two levels are covered with huge tensile roof that shades and protects from rain. To the centre and rear of the site are a hotel and office complex that similarly float over the pedestrian plaza and bus platforms. The façades removes any notion of scale from the outside by a carefully designed repetition of single unit.
The design seeks to examine a new possibility in design for transportation, a new building type which we hope will transform architecture for across India.
