ARCHITECTURAL THESIS: WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT
Visakha Festival Plaza, Beach Road, Visakhapatnam: Developing city’s urban fabric to exploit its interface with the waters of a natural sea face to maximum benefit.


About the project
Waterfronts, the unique places where land and water meet, are a finite resource embodying the special history and character of each community. Urban waterfronts, like the cities help define, dynamic places. In each era, the needs for relaxation and the pursuit of leisure activities resulted
in planning forms and architecture solution that expresses the human response to lakeside or
seaside. Waterfronts are often the most valuable resource of a city and many people feel they are
a stakeholder: from the resident’s beautiful view to marine industry to waterfront shops, everyone wants their interests protected.

As a student of Architecture, I wanted to explore, understand and develop an approach towards waterfront city. And Visakhapatnam is recognized as the fifth-fastest growing "Industrial
Metropolis" in the Asian sub­continent and the fastest growing industrial city on the East coast
of India strategically located mid­way between Calcutta and Chennai. This comes down to vision
of Visakhapatnam city -to become an economically vibrant, safe and inclusive city providing the
best social and physical infrastructure facilities for its residents, businesses and visitors.

The project dealt with transforming Beach Road as a unique cultural quarter with recreational and entertainment facilities serving the city, its people and tourists with new dimension, meaning and scale of development. The program of development was prepared envisioning the public character and to create a city’s identity on its waterfront. The urban form integrated with landscape created an enriching experience by responding to the context of water, existing diversity of activities, metaphors representing city’s characteristics and as a visually dominant landmark form.

The Process
The project was done in 5 months of time by understanding waterfronts, analyzing the site, developing the vision, ideating concepts, developing an area brief and following design strategy, layout and zoning.

Browse the concept sheets below:

Guided by:
Prof. Malay Chatterjee
Architectural Thesis, Spring 2007, School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi