KOCHI: ‘My Fort Kochi - ThanalKoottu’, a people-led one-day event will be held on Monday aimed at revitalising Fort Kochi’s Vasco da Gama Square, into a vibrant people-oriented activity space. The event is being organised by WRI India with the support from KMEA College of Architecture, Aluva. Thanalkoottu will be a temporary, pilot event that would be a testing ground for the creative use of space. This will give dynamic feedback from the citizens which would be helpful in creating a permanent infrastructure for effective public spaces in the city.
According to WRI India, public spaces and parks in Kochi, which are far and few, are either timed, ticketed and barricaded or encroached upon by parking and illegal commercial activity. Citizens in the city have limited choice of public spaces and common greens to unwind and often rely on malls and theatres for their recreation for lack of accessible public spaces.
Starting from 7 am on Monday, volunteers from the neighbourhood are welcome to contribute in creating the public space. From 3 pm, heritage walks, cycling tours, conversations with city representatives, interactive board activities about Fort Kochi, performances, cleanliness drive and various games will be held.
The event is a part of a detailed project report the Kochi Municipal Corporation is developing in collaboration with WRI India and Cochin Smart City Limited, for the heritage development of the Fort Kochi area.The heritage master plan aims to create a framework for the development of streets and public spaces, heritage - tangible and intangible. It also aims to adopt a ‘people-centric approach’ through a series of stakeholder processes from documentation to the proposal stage.