Attalika Palms is a plotted development situated beside a quaint little canal running parallel to Raebareli road, in Lucknow. The master plan was already in place when we were engaged to add value and uplift the spatial experience in the design.

We updated the road sections which now incorporated a walkway and green belts, these green belts also had recharge wells at 30 m intervals to take care of the surface runoff and to cater the rainwater recharge of two adjacent plots.

All the entry points were decided beforehand, this subsequently decided the setbacks of all the plots, and it allowed us to have some degree of control over the upcoming street façade and the sense of enclosure of the roads. An open gym, a jogging track, kids play areas were incorporated in the master plan.

Getting the visual stimulus was the major challenge in this exercise, because these types of projects are mainly two dimensional. The third dimension happens very late as people start building their houses. The changing visual picture is only the beginning of sensory experience, the changes from light to shade, from hot to cold, from noise to silence and the tactile quality of the surface underfoot, all are important in the cumulative effect. Underlying all is the modular rhythm of footsteps. Only through endless walking can the designer absorb into his being the true scale of urban spaces.

The dull grey concrete became vehicular domain; the red bricks became the domain of the people. The medians were designed as a series of linked spaces, which create a continuous and unbroken flow of impressions that assault peoples’ senses as they move through it.

The utilities like electric poles, recharge wells and manholes were carefully planned so that there is no conflict between services and movement. The manholes and the recharge wells are well camouflaged by clever use of colors, textures and greenery.

Three minor design installations were proposed in the plan. These interventions are just contextual manifests of the designer’s will to construct and allow participation. These installations are designed to become the landmarks in this simultaneous movement system; and to create a sense of collective identity.

1. A temple at the entrance - From collective to individual experience.
2. A water body - Time is arrested and flows again with changing reflections.
3. A Secondary entrance gate – Articulation of space, scale, rhythm texture and spirit.