Mahindra World City Jaipur - Social Infrastructure Zone

Mahindra World City Jaipur (MWCJ) will be Asia’s first and the world’s largest project to receive C40 Climate Positive Development Stage 2 Certification. The new development will deliver 25,000 new sustainable homes in walkable neighbourhoods, tailored to the needs of the rapidly growing city of Jaipur. Arup’s proposal places the new community at the heart of the design process. Working closely with Mahindra to understand the current workforce, we proposed ten distinct yet interlinked mixed-use communities that create an attractive and functional place to support self-sustaining residents and resilient businesses.

Our proposal for ‘Communities in Landscape’ is supported by the following core principles: Each resident or visitor will be less than 5 minutes walking distance from a high- quality landscape or open space with useable and functional programming; Each community will have a plaza integrating local convenience stores and amenities which will act as its hub – a place to meet and relax – equipped with the infrastructure to support active community life; and designated routes will promote walkability and cycling among the communities to ensure that although they have distinct personalities, they are a coherent whole.

Describe the context and brief for this place?

Arup was commissioned to develop a masterplan for the residential and social infrastructure zone (180 ha) of Mahindra’s second World City in India. This new place, alongside a diverse employment zone will together form the Mahindra World City Jaipur (MWCJ). MWCJ will be Asia’s first - and the world’s largest - project to receive C40 Climate Positive Development Stage 2 Certification. The new development will deliver twenty-five thousand new sustainable homes in walkable neighbourhoods, tailored to the needs of the rapidly growing city of Jaipur.

Our proposal forms ten new connected communities, with homes and amenities framed around a central plaza. Along with these neighbourhood hubs, there is a new Town Centre that will balance civic, commercial and retail facilities to serve the community and the wider city. A central hub acts as a new regional centre for Jaipur offering destination retailing, contemporary culture, health and wellbeing facilities. The world- class education facilities housed in a network of university buildings to the centre and south-west of the site will help to create an employment led education ecosystem – integrating schools, adult learning and universities amongst shared public spaces.

To align with C40 goals, we proposed specific interventions including reuse of treated water for landscaping, tree planting programmes, development of energy-efficient buildings and pilot projects to test the use of e-rickshaw to create emission-free, last-mile connectivity.

Describe your design for this place and how it will contribute to urban life?

Arup’s proposal places the new community at the heart of the design process. Working closely with Mahindra to understand the current workforce in the world city and the characteristics and personas of the future community, the masterplan creates places to live, work, learn and play, not only for local people, but for Jaipur and the rest of state of Rajasthan.

We proposed ten distinct yet interlinked mixed-use communities that create an attractive and functional place to support self- sustaining residents and resilient businesses. Our proposal for ‘Communities in Landscape’ is supported by the following core principles:

• Each resident or visitor will be less than 5 minutes walking distance from a high-quality landscape or open space with useable and functional programming;
• Each community will have a plaza integrating local convenience stores and amenities which will act as its hub – a place to meet and relax – equipped with the infrastructure to support active community life; and
• Designated routes will promote walkability and cycling among the communities to ensure that although they have distinct personalities, they are a coherent whole.

The structure of open spaces responds to these core principles. We have proposed five key typologies; Nevata Park as the key open space, Community Plazas as local activity centres, Green Corridors as shaded walkways that links the scheme into the wider area, The Walk as a more civic corridor that connects the leisure, cultural and academic components of the site and lastly Courtyards as tranquil, semi-private spaces.

What was your process in coming up with the design? What research, consultation, workshops or conversations did you undertake?

The context of development in MWCJ has been set out in previous studies provided by commercial consultants and agencies including McKinsey and Knight Frank. These studies, along with engagement and advice from the client team, formed our baseline. We aimed to propose a more granular mix of uses that would create communities capable of sustaining themselves. To achieve this, we studied the contemporary needs of the Indian society to understand the destinations and amenities people visit daily or weekly. Further, we studied surrounding settlements and interviewed their residents to understand the current provision of local facilities. As a result, we created a list of facilities which were necessary to support the new residential communities and existing employment areas.

By blending uses at different scales across the site, our vision was to create a vibrant and accessible environment and reduce the need to travel to Jaipur. To test the outcomes of this mix of uses we set up a series of personas to act as a proxy community for MWCJ. These scenarios explore issues and opportunities which the future community of MWCJ will face, and the unique offer which the future place provides in order to enrich and support their everyday lives.

Climate responsive design was a core objective of the proposal. Our solar assessment used innovative technology to determine the best orientation for the plots that reduces buildings thermal gain and provides the most comfortable open spaces. This was an iterative process of testing different orientations and evaluating the outcomes.

How does your design respond to future changes in demographics, transport and the climate emergency to create a resilient place?

The site has a complicated ownership structure with a restricted development zone in the middle. Arup’s proposal turned this constraint into an opportunity by proposing a central park within the restricted development zone. Nevata Park functions as the primary open space at the city scale, from which pedestrianised green corridors connect to the new communities. The innovative water management systems throughout the site also feature in Nevata Park, which is designed to contain flood waters in the monsoon season. Nevata Park will be adaptable in order to respond to seasonal variation in rainfall and runoff to reduce the risk of flooding in monsoon season, as well as longer-term climate uncertainty.

To ensure lively and well-used open spaces and walkways, the design responds to the climate conditions of the region. Building massing is used to create a shaded environment and increase the thermal comfort in the public realm. Through our solar and route network analysis we identified areas with direct exposure to solar radiation, and our shading strategy proposed a variety of mitigation tactics for these areas, ranging from shading structures to street widths and planting. To allow for flexibility while ensuring distinct, mixed-use communities, we established a set of parameter plans. These plans set out certain fixed elements of the scheme, along with some flexible variables which can be adapted and flexed as the design is developed further and each plot is built out. This allows for nimble responses to changes in customer need or expectation, or future technologies.