In connection to the Hyderabad Metro-Rail project, it was decided to relocate vendors of the Sultan bazaar into a commercial complex, giving rise to the complex question of encapsulating the character of a street bazaar into a building. Continuous movement, constant change, mix of products, the persistent propositioning whether active or passive by the shopkeeper, hawker or billboards of buying and selling, sounds, smells, colour and curiosity, all and more creates this apparent sense of chaos but as research and experience proves is a successful model evolved over time that consumes the consumer.
This re-imagining of the street bazaar in the vertical dimension inquired into the idea of traversing. The act of traversing not as a mundane movement between point A and B, but does it provoke new possibilities and chance interactions? Architecture is static but the user isn’t. One experiences architecture through traversing the space. It is this traverse that creates joy, allows for the social, that connects the various experiences encapsulated in the building.
The street bazaar is redesigned as a gentle & continuous pedestrian ramp where users can navigate shops without climbing a single step. From the 2 wheeler parking on the lowest floor, this ramp climbs across 5 floors with vendor shops on either side, opening out to a food court on the terrace. The proposed metro line connects into the building on the second floor, where alighting passengers may walk down the same ramp bazaar out to the road.