CHENNAI: Open spaces and parks in namma Chennai are not as many as we’d like to have, compared to other cities. But the few we do have are a much needed green refresher.
Now, the residents of Mylapore have renewed reason to rejoice - the locale’s favourite Nageswara Rao Park — has a new addition, a dynamic pavilion, built by the equally dynamic team of Open corridor over this past weekend.
Founded mid-June by a bunch of freshly graduated architecture students, the 12-member team wanted to scale up from the usual Madras Day events of walks and talks by observing the city’s places, spaces and buildings, and present it to the people in an appealing manner. “The respect we’ve been giving to open spaces as a whole has reduced. With this intervention, we wish to change that,” says a member of the team.
They started with Nageswara Rao Park in Mylapore, because they felt the area has an interesting mix of people. “There are temples, an equal number of mosques, churches and a Jain temple also. Mylapore has the element why Chennai is called cosmopolitan,” they elaborate.
The pavilion at the Nageswara Rao Park is designed as a hyperbolic paraboloid pavilion, made of mild steel and rope, with infographic panels on different parks in the city, such as Anna nagar Tower park, and Chepauk Eco Park.
Prior to the installation, the team spent time speaking to visitors of the park about what they felt about it, and what more they required. “Apart from the regular requirements of drinking water and clean toilets, many said that they was no point of interest in the park. There’s a playground and a shelter — but most of them said there should be some kind of image ability for the park. So we thought this pavilion will be a nice addition to it,” they explain. A petition form to make the structure permanent garnered over 50 signatures from the people.
Work began on Saturday, with the permission from the Corporation of Chennai, and under the patronage of other stakeholders, the people of Mylapore, and editor of the Mylapore Times, Vincent D Souza.
Upon completion on Sunday, several regular users from the park found it to be an interesting addition. “The design was meant to be an intervention, and not an intrusion — the existing walking pathway was taken into consideration and the hyperbolic paraboloid pavilion has entries and exits synonymous to the existing pathway,” the team explains. Entirely micro funded by the team, and with the patronage of mentors, the budget was close to Rs 50,000.
Open Corridor also designed an illustrative and quirky map of the park that can guide new users on how to go around and use the park efficiently. People can scan the QR code at the installation, and download the soft copy of the map onto their phones. The team found the people more excited about the map, even the regular uses of the park were fascinated..
To increase the interest among people about our city’s history and heritage, Open Corridor is looking to diversify the way information is presented to appeal to all generations and age group. They recently conducted a walk in Chepauk, which was more like an exploration of the area, visiting heritage structures with special permission- like the Chepauk palace, Senate house, Madras University and PWD building.
“We have plans of collaborating with historians and presenting information in the form of visual media,” the team says, adding that they have collaborated with Waseem, a city-based photographer, who will be documenting parts of Chennai in the form of photos and short videos that can reach a wider audience.
For upcoming events from Open Corridor, visit their FB page: OpenCorridorChennai