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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Dakshineswar Sky Walk in Kolkata, India by Design Forum InternationalFebruary 21st, 2017 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Design Forum International Kolkata is the city which is home to some of the most revered places of worship of Hinduism, the seat of divine female power, Shakti, the “Dakshineswar Kali temple”. Located on the banks of Ganges at the northern tip of the metropolis, this place of worship was originally built by Rani Rashmoni.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International
 Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Today, Dakshineswar continues to draw huge numbers of devotees all around the year and is one of the most visited places of worship in Kolkata. In the earlier days, visiting by boat was one of the most preferred ways to reach the temple, and by road being the second. The approach road to the temple, that was once predominantly pedestrian, now has to cater to a growing vehicular traffic of private cars, taxis, two wheelers and goods vehicles. Increased footfalls over the years has brought in a lot of shops and kiosks catering to the visitors, offering Prasad, Pooja material, embellishments for the deity and assorted food, sweets, snacks and tea stalls. Finding no other space to occupy, they built over the footpath, pushing pedestrians to the road, jostling for space with rickshaws, cars and goods vehicles. Further, the approach road is extremely slow moving and congested during regular days and a logistics nightmare on festive days.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Case for Intervention: Convergence of multi-mode means of access: The temple is accessed through a single 10.5 meters wide road, almost 400 meters in length. There is no scope for expansion laterally since either side is occupied by Railway staff quarters. The street originates at a traffic rotary, a junction for the PWD road leading from Kolkata on South-East direction, the PWD road leading to Vivekanand Setu on the Western Direction and Ramkrishna Paramhans Dev Road leading North. The rotary is also the entrance point for the Dakshineswar temple Railway Station and the bus stop. The convergence of buses, cars, slow moving traffic like rickshaws, railway commuters and goods vehicles causes massive pile-up at the rotary.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Areas for intervention: The rotary is the first point of focus for an intervention, followed by the approach road, Rani Rashmoni Road, the streets leading out of it and the culmination of the approach road at the temple, at the entry gates to the temple compound. Collating key thoughts and ideas for design initialization, the West Bengal Government tasked KMDA to create a design brief and project report to enable floating of tenders leading upto design and build solutions for resolving the situation. Primary concerns were Segregation of traffic and pedestrian movement. Further segregation of traffic into motorized and non-motorized, Ensuring livelihood of the shop keepers. Ease of movement, comfort and safety of the devotees along with Seamless connectivity from point of disembarkation to the temple gates for the devotees. The resulting idea therefore aimed to transfer both the pedestrian circulation and the shops to an elevated con-course, thereby leaving the grade level space for traffic, exclusively and providing for multiple access means to and from the elevated concourse such as escalators, elevators and staircases.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International A crystallized design brief emerged, crafting the Skywalk; 380 meters long and 10.5 meters wide, creating a connection between the traffic rotary and the entrance gates of the temple compound with a provision of 12 escalators, 4 elevators and 8 staircases to allow devotees and users to embark and disembark from the Skywalk. The skywalk also relocates over 200 shops that are currently operating on the Rani Rashmoni Road, it integrates the walking con-course, shops, escalators and elevators with a provision to connect it to the Railways footbridge as well, with separate lanes for motorized and non-motorized traffic.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International By adopting one of the oldest approaches in design, that of Form Follows Function and adding some critical ingredients to a contextually responsive design; dynamism, fluidity and most importantly modularity, The Skywalk is conceived structurally as an extremely basic formation; a tube mounted on top of a platform supported on two legs. The platform turns and adapts to the street it is laid over, the tube twists and turns in sync with it. Some of its key design elements are: Modularity: The entire stretch is divided into modules of approximately 8 meters in length, each module a complete unit in itself. Fluidity: The form is seamless, along its entire length, its shape accentuating its curvilinear profile. Since a distance of 380 meters is available to create this experience, a pulsating wave pattern is made to create rhythm and enhance the visual and actual movement.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Dynamism: The MS support structure of the tube is superimposed with Aluminum fins of varying lengths, reducing and increasing in a cyclic fashion, causing a wave formation when seen in continuity, conveying the dynamic nature of the tube. Access to the Skywalk: The points of embarking are on the PWD road, at the railway station and the Ramkrishna Paramhans Dev road. Escalators, elevator and staircases service each of these points. There is a staircase in the middle for people fearful of escalators, elevators allow for convenience of movement for the old and the infirm as well as handicapped access. There are also plans for connecting the railway footbridge to the skywalk allowing for devotees using the Dakshineswar railway station directly from the railway platform level. There are further embarking and disembarking points at the other intersecting streets allowing for convenience of the local residents and shoppers. The temple gates end of the Skywalk has a set of 1 escalator, 1 elevator and 1 staircase on both the disembarkation and embarkation ends. All access points are treated as all-weather glass enclosures with adequate safety measures.  Location, Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Traffic lanes at Grade level: The two-legged structure of the structure enables for a 6 meters wide central lane, earmarked for motorized transport going in both directions and 2 meters wide lanes on both peripheries for slow moving traffic like rickshaws and bicycles. General arrangement of platform structure: There are two distinct segments of the skywalk; the segment spanning Rani Rashmoni Road and the segment spanning across the traffic rotary denoted as obligatory span by KMDA.
 Location, Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Tube mounted on top: A 10.5 meters wide tube at its base, it is 5 meters high and will be fabricated using RHS 75*100 members and RHS 60*60 purlins for the wave formation. These members will be welded to the platform.
 Location, Image Courtesy © Design Forum International The shops are aligned back to back and are 2m x 2m dimension each . There are 4 shops in a module of 8.1 meters on one side and therefore 8 shops per module. A total of over 200 shops can therefore be provisioned for re-allocation to shopkeepers currently running their businesses.The movement of devotees is on the periphery of the skywalk, a 2.8 meters wide pedestrian movement corridor with shops on one side and views of the temple, Ganges River at a distance and the neighborhood on the other side.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International At the junction of every six modules there is a buffer space of 8.1 meters length and 10.5 meters width, a plaza of approximately 85 sq. meters. This plaza acts as an interchange, a place for rest and relaxation, amenities like café and water fountains, information desks.The placement of movement peripherally and shops centrally allows for uni-directional movement of the devotees, clash free movement, able to handle large volumes of devotees. It also allows for external face access to the masses moving, freely allowing air and breathing space. It also reduces the hazard risk and would enable faster evacuation in case of emergency. The central placement of shops allows for concentrating the support services like water supply and wastewater disposal. It also allows for the higher vertical allowances within the shops increasing the stack space within for the shopkeepers.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International Amidst the two approaches to the selection of an architectural vocabulary for the project, between monumental or futuristic, there was a strong case for monumental- beautiful and expressive facades of both the temple and the railway station building bearing testimony to that. However, the Skywalk as a concept is rooted in modernity, a contemporary response to the problems generated over the years, the aspirations of a rapidly modernizing metropolis demands manifestation in its new urban landmarks. Therefore, it was a conscious decision to break away from classicism, bringing technology into play, and showcasing art through a long-winded monument of transport. The modernity of the concept found its reflection in the dynamism of its form, a never-ending stream of the faithful finding its reflection in the pulsating waveform, the adaptability to context found its reflection in the fluidity of its form.  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International  Image Courtesy © Design Forum International
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