INCUBATION HUB FOR URBAN MIXED COMMUNITIES IN SURAT

Abstract

Cities are fundamentally about people, and where people go and where people meet are at the core of what makes a city work. In recent years the increasing urbanisation has led to an impulsive growth in Indian cities. People migrate in search of quality of life through better employment opportunities but often end up in more stressful situations because unlike in rural areas people feel alone and on their own here. People coming from various different areas (both rural and urban) form a diverse social construct which results in more fragmentation, inequality and a growing complexity of social life. Problems like disaster management, sanitation, safety, etc become harder to solve because of the poor links between the community leading to less or no conversations and delayed reach of information and action. The City of Surat, a historic port town known for its trade and business growth all over the world is today one of the largest urban agglomerations of India with around 80% of its population beingm migrant. Initially being the most important sea port after seeing the decline due to the birth of Bombay, Surat again rose in trade with the emergence of railway and hence developed even more becoming a hub for textile and mineral production and refinement. With its economy so traditionally dependent on land and river shipping lanes, it's now time to expand its business realm into the digital era. Incubating centres play a vital role in providing such platforms of creation, aspiration, entrepreneurship by connecting people to peers, building partnerships, obtaining necessary skills and training. This can be used as an opportunity to connect the mixed urban social, cultural and economic construct into a connected intelligent community based on the common culture of ideas and innovation. The proposed hub will represent the essence of the city’s dynamic construct by creating iconic architectural elements inspired by the unique context and city’s image to attract potential participants and investors and make them associate to the city. The idea is to develop the incubation hub like an Urban public space merging the lines with its institutionalized image. Establishing continuity with the immediate environment and stressing the hub’s permeability through punctures and approachability is not only a recurrent theme in the spatial design but also an expression of openness, and informality to bring out communication both visual and verbal and integrate the association to people’s everyday life to the place and city. Approaching from this point of view the incubation i.e., provision of an ideal environment for growth and development will occur both ways, as in the city incubating its communities and in turn the communities helping the city grow and develop through them. The design hence will aim to create engaging spaces to be expressed as socio-inclusive hub, enhance approachability, facilitate formal research and innovation areas and shape an informal environment that encourages random patterns of exploration. “Design has yet to become a keystone in solving the world’s most pressing challenges, But I believe it's time has come.”