All Things Urban

Overview

The Kochi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation) jointly call for all creative minds in the field of urbanism, architecture, landscape design as well as environmental and social science experts to participate in the next phase of EnteKochi (My Kochi) - the EnteKochi-Competition!

The EnteKochi-Competition is a national level Urban Design Competition (UDC) that aims to jointly ‘design the future city’ of Kochi. It is envisaged to plan and then facilitate the implementation of an integrated civic project that is of key relevance for the sustainable development of Kochi.

About the Site

The focus area for the Urban Design Competition is the Mullassery Canal Precinct in down- town Ernakulam, which is part of the Central Business District (CBD) of Kochi. Historically, the Mullassery canal was built for inland mobility, connecting the backwaters, in the west of Kochi, to the Perandoor Canal, in the east. The eastern end has the Kerala State Regional Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus terminus that caters to intra and inter-city public transportation. Waterfront reclamation of the past, at the juncture where the canal meets the backwaters, has produced a linear public recreational avenue called Marine Drive, juxtaposed with housing towers and commercial buildings.

Over the years the canal seems to have been built upon by adjacent plots as its use for effective transportation faded into the past with the advent of other modes of personal and public transport and a road centric development. While the total length of the canal is 1.3 kms, more than half of it is presently covered by concrete slabs which are used for on-street parking and dedicated vending zones. The land use pattern, along the stretch of the canal, transforms as we move from east to west. It is lined with prominent educational institutions of the city, heritage sites, major shopping avenues, street markets, warehouses, formal and informal housing. The canal is surrounded by low-rise high-density development of the 80’s that transformed the city of Kochi.

Expected Outcomes

1. Creative development plans/ideas for the new urban paradigm

2. Conceptual design for the entire length of the canal (scale 1:2000) and detailed design for Sub Site A and one of the other two designated Sub sites

3. Spatial analyses with effective graphical representations

4. Spatial concepts for regeneration of the disconnected blue-green infrastructure

5. Sustainable short- and long-term strategies and site-specific solutions

Timeline: Phase wise implementation strategy of design interventions

Selected teams will be expected to help realise the projects by bringing them to an implementable level in the form of Detailed Project Reports in parts or whole as the case may be.

Why Participate?

FOR RESIDENTS OF KOCHI

For residents of Kochi, this is an opportunity for you to be part of the urban development process of your city by sharing insights, experiences, and ideas. As a resident, you will be able to give information about the site to the professional participants by using interactive tools coming up on this website. Selected residents will also have a chance to be on the jury panel which will choose the winning designs.

FOR PROFESSIONALS

For professionals from diverse backgrounds practising in the urban realm in India, this will be a chance to explore and propose creative implementable solutions that will address the most pressing concerns of the city.

An esteemed panel of judges will select the winning entries who will be contracted to further evolve their designs to an implementable level.

As a service provider in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education work, we are dedicated to shaping a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security. The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe – from the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector and governments of other countries. We work with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. Our main commissioning party is the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).