Touristic pols in Ahmedabad (India)

Touristic pols is an urban complex whose design is based on a fine analysis of the urban and architectural principles of the city. Located in the Kalupur district, between the railway station and the historic city wall, the complex is the urban thickness that connects booth through a courtyard system.

The Indian notion of existence rest on dualities. This schema of dual existence simultaneously accepts the part as a whole and the whole as a part. The Ahmedabad urban system is based on a vernacular organization of alleys connected to each other by squares. Each ones are complete in itself at a neighborhood plane and are also part of a larger system. By analysing the architectural forms of pols, we see that this principle is also present in architecture. The duality elements of traditional houses are the courtyard and the oatlas. These spaces open to the outside act as thresholds whose limits are cleverly thought out. The project observes the tenets of the courtyard and these notions are reflected in the principles of the touristic pol. The spatial richness of the courtyards allows us to decline it from the urban scale to the architectural scale and produce subtle variations within unified expressions. To guarantee a clearly delineated hierarchy of courtyards, the project develops a work on the quality of these limits, thus defining privacy gradients adapted to the context of each of them. In order to connect the railway station to the fortified city, the project deploys the urban system of squares beyond the fortified enclosure by relying the urban residues existing in the district of Kalupur. Courtyards become key components of spatial organization for the hierachisation and cohabitation of the different uses of the complex but also a response to the hot climate. It is an intricate maze of built and unbuilt space where living spaces are grouped around courtyards. The strategic positioning of a artificial lake and the addition of colonnade and balconies soften the temperatures in the complex.The change in levels, constricted entries and the series of gateways imply thresholds which distance the different spaces. So, the equipment can coexist and be integrated. As a city complex, this touristic pol has diverse functions and composite spaces to offer. Each space is intended to create is own ambience which creates an essential place of urban life.