THE PELATHOPE PROJECT
Chennai
Urban Design and Place making
Shreya Krishnan, Lavanya Murugaiyan
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The Pelathope project in the historic street of Pelathope in Mylapore, Chennai is an initiative by SKDO to work with the local community and stakeholders create inclusive community and public spaces that can catalyze social cohesion in the neighbourhood as part of a larger long-term vision and approach that promotes inclusive narratives about community, heritage and development across contexts.
Against this background, the Pelathope project has three components:
1) The Rowhouse - a workshop and meeting space connecting design professionals with communities, while honouring the built heritage of the street through adaptive reuse of a 90-year old building dating from 1935
2) The Pelathope Street Vision: A participatory community visioning exercise to reimagine the street as an inclusive public space.
3) 40 Pelathope (“Big House”) : An inclusive community space housed in a 150 year old heritage home
THE PELATHOPE STREET VISION
Pelathope (“pala” = jackfruit and “thope” = grove) is a street that has a rich social history and connotations of being a “lawyers” street. In recent times, there has been a loss of neighbourhood character and built heritage due to redevelopment, as well as serious civic issues as a result of densification, such as waste management issues, parking, falling groundwater levels, and water scarcity.
The primary purpose of the Pelathope urban rejuvenation and street design vision is to create a participatory framework that can influence long-term and short-term projects for street improvement that fulfill a series of objectives ranging from conservation of blue-green systems, water resilience, greening, well-being, sense of inclusion, pedestrian and women’s safety, and health and safety. The objective of this initiative is to promote sustainable neighbourhoods that have the capacity to promote well-being for all residents through resilient, inclusive public spaces and streets.
40 PELATHOPE
40 Pelathope is a vision for an inclusive community space with a community library, neighbourhood/local history museum, small events space for culture and other events, community garden and workshop/maker space, and homestay that will allow for greater awareness and celebration of the neighbourhood’s diversity and promote greater understanding and awareness of different community perspectives, while allowing visitors to Mylapore to immerse themselves into the context of the neighbourhood. Within these spaces, we will curate a selection of audiovisual and textual material, cultural performances, and workshops/classes that foreground the experiences and heritage of vulnerable communities, including women, gender minorities, and displaced/low-income residents to increase awareness of diverse lived experiences within the neighbourhood amongst all stakeholders.
