Urban Square

Abstract

Architecture is a means of creating memories and connections with spaces that we experience. It is a means of creating a sense of place. It responds to many factors that happen in one's life i.e. happy events, sad events and events that leave an imprint on one's soul. Architecture cannot control one's emotions like love, etc. but it can create spaces that leave an imprint on one's memory. Public spaces are a virtue of becoming identity of the cities due to their use, relation with the users and their design. Public spaces become property of the users and thus they shape themselves according to their use, resulting in painting memories on the space. Urban spaces, piazzas, squares etc. preserve cultures, shape identities and behold history of the nations. Thus, the importance of urban squares and piazzas in shaping a city holds a significant value. All over the world, they key urban spaces or famous places are categorized by their rich urban culture, use and economic value including urban squares as one of these key spaces. The idea of this thesis is to uplift the city fabric by introducing small design interventions in dense urban fabric at spaces where urban activity is at its peak. This could in turn act as an initiator and spread in other parts of the city as well, so as to revitalize the urban spaces. Revitalization here is defined in terms of designing quality spaces, improving public use and improvising healthy environment in place of otherwise polluted, cramped and dungy areas. This would aim towards uplifting the face of entire city in the future and sustaining our urban fabrics. Not only would it improve life of the citizens, but also improve the accessibility of dense parts of the city, opening doors to tourism and boosting the economy of the country. As mentioned above, urban squares are one of the key aspects of urban design deciding the fate of the city and this thesis takes the idea of designing a square so as to revitalize the urban fabric. The site for this thesis is one of the busiest bazaars of Rawalpindi i.e. Saddar Bazaar and the site is one of the few empty plots in Saddar. The program is derived from the context as well as the idea of the thesis i.e. it's an urban square with a mixed use zone having art galleries, studios, library, workshops and theme based retail with artworks, miscellaneous products etc., .available. The built scape is the solid entity that supports the design of the square i.e. the void. The square is the negative space that becomes the positive space in design concept and the positive built space is the negative space that highlights the void.