India ‘Green Boulevard’ sports enclave planned

Image: BDP

A design consortium of Building Design Partnership Limited (BDP), Cox Architecture and the Collage Design is shaping a vibrant new district where the world-class sport meets the community life blending the international expertise with the cultural richness of Gujarat (State of India).

‘bdp.com’ stated that situated beside the Sabarmati River the enclave will become India’s newest City Park offering recreation and social amenities to the people of Amdavad (City in the State of Gujarat, India).

Manchester (UK)-based BDP is a major international, interdisciplinary practice of Architects, Designers, Engineers, and Urbanists. They work closely with the users, the clients and the community to create special places for living, working, shopping, culture, and learning across the world. Founded in 1961, BDP now have studios across the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Netherlands, UAE, India, Peru, Singapore, USA, Canada, and China. The BDP has a leading track record in all major sectors including health, education, workplace, retail, urbanism, heritage, housing, transport, leisure, public safety, and energy utilities.

The Rocks (Australia)-based the Cox Architecture acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and waters of Australia. The practice is built around the designers that collaborate with the clients, the stakeholders and the communities. The firm is ‘By the Many, For the Many’. The Cox Architecture seeks to do more with less tapping into the resourceful Australian culture to build value through ingenuity. They strive for quality through their beliefs in equality and opportunity. The firm embed culture in their designs taking time to listen and understand the cultural context and the social impacts. Cox continuously seek the brightest minds to innovate design, process and typology.

Mumbai (India)-based the Collage Design is a reputed architecture and engineering practice that has, over two decades, evolved as a multifaceted firm. They design, build, manage, and consult on the large-scale projects that delight the clients and the end-users alike. The clients benefit from their highly-specialized, cross-disciplinary teams that offer a comprehensive suite of services to deliver cost and resource-efficient design solutions.

Image: BDP

Like Le Corbusier (Swiss-French Architect, Designer, Urbanist, and Writer) and Louis Kahn’s (Estonian-American Architect) seminal works in Amdavad that inspired B. V. Doshi (Indian Architect) and Charles Correa (Indian Architect and Urban Planner) the new enclave will weave tradition and modernity into a world-class precinct that reflects India’s growing ambition to combine global sports with the community-focused development bringing socio-economic growth to its Cities. With the Commonwealth Games Federation (the organization responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games) naming Amdavad as the Host City for the Commonwealth Games centenary event in 2030 and Gujarat confirmed to host the 2029 World Police and Fire Games (a biennial athletic event open to active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel throughout the world) the design signals the City’s emergence as India’s premier sports capital. These events will help to enhance the infrastructure development, generate significant investment and business opportunities and create more than 20,000 jobs in the hospitality and retail sectors in the city.

The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multisport event that brings together the athletes from across the Commonwealth of Nations, a political association comprising the majority of former territories of the British Empire.

‘bdp.com’ further stated that the masterplan is guided by four guiding principles: Climate responsiveness, integration with Nature, architecture that is modern yet authentic, and a sustainable legacy for the City. Centered on a ‘Green Boulevard’ and anchored by the iconic, 132,000-seat Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) the plan integrates the Commonwealth Games-ready facilities with the plazas, the gardens and the climate-responsive streetscapes. Three major venues – an International Tennis Centre, an Indoor Arena and an Aquatic Centre – together with a National Institute of Sports Excellence are framed by stepped landscaped podiums that balance the security, the scale and the Gujarati architecture traditions. A mandala grid and lush greenery will provide year-round comfort and highlight the entrances to each venue.

At the center of the enclave will be a new Tennis Centre, the first of its scale in India, and will feature a 10,000-seat center court, 5,000 and 3,000-seat show courts and eight match courts. A floating fabric roof and suspended soffit (the underside of a part or member of a building, as of an overhang, ceiling, staircase, cornice, or entablature – architectural element) will provide shade while allowing natural ventilation and shaded balconies with planted edges offering views of the River and the surrounding matches. A fan plaza will connect all the courts creating an energetic focal point for the spectators.

Image: BDP

Nestled between the new International Tennis Centre and the Narenda Modi Stadium is the new National Institute of Sports Excellence. This new sporting ashram will become the center of training for India’s next generation of sports stars. The complex includes the training halls, the gymnasiums, the recovery equipment, and the bio-medical facilities to be used by the athletes and the coaches.

At the Eastern end of the SVP Enclave will sit the new 18,000-seat international indoor arena making it the largest indoor arena of this scale in India. Designed to international standards for the gymnastics and the basketball finals this venue will also go on to host the concerts, family entertainment as well as kabaddi (a sport of Indian origin played by teams of seven on a circular sand court), and the other sports. The façades will be clad in bronze anodized aluminum jali (perforated lattice or screen of stone) screens and will reference the traditional jharokhas (Indian architectural element) and chhajjas (type of eave in Indian architecture) providing both cultural depth and environmental protection.

To the West of the SVP Enclave next to the Modi Stadium will be the new Aquatic Centre seating 12,000 spectators during major tournaments and reducing to 4,000 post-events. The Centre will be designed to meet the international event hosting standards for world-class swimming, diving and synchronized swimming and will also serve the community as a learning and leisure pool. An exposed exoskeleton, double-glazed curtain wall, an overhanging roof, and the colored glass louvres will ensure that the center has both visual impact and passive climate control. The lantern-like form will recall the floating sky lanterns of Diwali on the Sabarmati River.

The biodiverse park will act as a “Green lung” for Amdavad hosting the national and international events while remaining open all year round.

Image: BDP

Maintained Manisha Bhartia, Urbanism Director and Head of BDP, India, “Our vision for the Sports Enclave is to create an inclusive, sustainable and distinctly Indian destination for world sport. By drawing on Amdavad’s architectural traditions and blending them with cutting-edge design and technology we are designing out single use sporting venues that decay over time.”

Added Alastair Richardson, Director, Cox Architecture, “In continuation of our efforts to deliver sustainable sports infrastructure in India the SVP Enclave will act as a shining example of our commitment towards developing the iconic projects with a vision towards financial viability, inclusivity and integrating sports into the fabric of the community.”

Remarked Ramkumar Subramanian, Director, Collage Design, “The consortium’s vision offers a bold new model for how major sporting events can elevate a City creating a destination for the world while leaving a lasting legacy for its citizens.”

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