Compact City 

Studio Shajay Bhooshan

Tutors Henry Louth, Jayanaveenaa Periyasamy

Team Naddhapatra Busarakum, Akshay Khumar, Niveditha Raj

As cities expand, they tend to spread outward, resulting in urban sprawl. Such unplanned expansion of urban areas, result in low-density development, single-use zoning and heavy reliance on car transportation. Unchecked growth often leads to underutilized land and waste in public infrastructure, while increasing commuting times. This thesis examines the phenomenon of urban sprawl to develop a comprehensive urban design. We see urban sprawl as a design opportunity to create affordable and high-quality living spaces close to urban centres. Recognizing cities as evolving labour markets, our focus is on increasing development density through compaction. Urban compactness here refers to the higher-density, mixed-use developments allowing for efficient land use. By making more density at the building, district, and city levels, we envisage mixed-use developments with enhanced connectivity. Through the phased growth allocations by a participatory rule-based system, ways of steering urban sprawl are suggested, making it more inclusive.  A cluster network enables the efficient transfer of information and resources. The CompactCity seeks to establish equilibrium and promote equitable development by leveraging the economies of scale. To achieve district compaction the connectivity is applied across various levels and scales. Different connections were tested by iterating through physical and digital prototypes to identify systems that facilitate compaction. Architectural geometry was explored with a phased construction system correlating to phased growth. One such element is concrete stereotomic podium with optional lightweight superstructure, potentially allowing more density. Through creating a cohesive building system for urban elements, we aim to populate the urban fabric systematically. From this basis for CompactCity, our thesis proposes a dual approach: a top-down strategy to deliberately steer urban sprawl and a bottom-up participatory approach to grow and subsequently densify the city. This integrated framework suggests ways for potentially novel urban models, informed by the urban sprawl dynamics, and yet are inclusive.