To begin with, this compilation of documentation and urban design interventions for the city of Vellore,

is an upshot of the students work in the curriculum program for the subject Urban Design, a subject
with both theory and studio aspects. Although the outcomes of this academic exercise were deliberately
oriented towards a learning and a skill development process for the students in terms of documenting
and generating useful data by various methods and how to approach intervention for the physical urban
environment, the resulting information holds potential to be put to use for understanding the city of
Vellore and also some of the proposals to improve the physical urban environment of the city hold
genuine potential that when developed subsequently can be implemented.

This program was designed for the urban design studio in the ninth semester, where students would
have adequate conceptual knowledge about architectural design and also would have completed two
semesters of training at various firms that deal with architecture, which gives their work a more rational
and practical approach. And also, this particular assignment is in tandem with the smart city initiative
that is being implemented in the city of Vellore by the city's administration. So, the design of this
program has been deliberately done in a manner to yield outputs that can aid the process of
implementation of the smart city initiative in the city of Vellore, in terms of data generation and micro
level urban design interventions.

Before describing the body of the work being forwarded, we would like to thank the whole
administrative structure of the Vellore city in helping us in every way possible for the smooth operation
of the data collection process of the program in the city of Vellore.

The design of the program has been done to match the batch strength of eighty students along the size
of the Vellore city, also keeping the logistical demands of time and other constraints. The city's
boundary with state of Andhra Pradesh and the areas near Bagayam are taken as the northern and the
southern extents respectively. Similarly the Gopalasamudram lake and the Saduperi lake are taken as
the western and the eastern extents. The positioning of the National Highway, the location of the
Kathpadi Junction railway station and various other landmarks such as the Green circle, new bus stand,
old bus stand, the Vellore Fort, the Central Jail, CMC hospital and VIT, have been consequential in
segregating the whole city physically into ten workable zones to be handled by eight students each. The
documentation of all of these zones yields some generic information related to the physical build
environment in the terms of the building characteristics like the age, height, et cetera. Various data
representations related to urban design such as figure ground map, open spaces and green spaces
mapping are also done. Other physical components of the urban environment like the street network
has also been mapped. Also, the administrative divisions such as the wards are mapped in sync with the
physical maps. Various neighbourhoods highlighting significant landmarks are also visually represented.
Apart from the documentation, various issues and potentials of social and cultural significance are
highlighted and various methods of study such as activity mapping, tracking, photography, surveys and
interviews are conducted to document those issues.

Some of these issues and potentials that have been identified are further investigated and proposals are
given by the student groups for intervention of urban design scale. These interventions are elaborately
presented in subsequent part of the compilation but the collective work can be summarized as follows:
ZONE PROPOSAL AREA PAGE
1. The Urban Getaway - Hiking Trail City level implementation 16
2. Otteri Lakefront Development Otteri lake and adjoining area 17
1
3. Solar Energy - Its Potential City level implementation 19
4. The Urban Gateway - Parks City level implementation 19
1. Sankaranpalayam Neighborhood Sankaranpalayam area 26
2. Green Link City level implementation 29
3. Lake Restoration Palavansanthukuppam 31
2
4. Hill Development Bagayam area 32
5. Street Organization City level implementation 33
6. Neighborhood park Anna Nagar 28
1. Traffic Congestion - Design Azad Road 44
2. Deborg Stadium - Community
RN Palayam 45
Ground
3. Temple node and railway crossing
3 City level implementation 46
design proposal
4. Toll gate junction bus bay 4 road junctions 47
5. Solid waste management City level implementation 48
6. Slum Rehabilitation Azad Road 50
1. Neighborhood Development Kansalpet 68
2. Enlightened Canal Network kansalpet 69
3. Vellore bus terminal City level implementation 69
4. Community Space Dharma raja Temple 70
5. Cultivated connection Commercial street 70
4 6. Revitalization of automobile
City level implementation 71
garage area
7. Downtown green link Vasantha Puram 71
8. Solid waste management R. S. Nagar 72
9. Neighborhood and Fort
Vasantha Puram 72
Redevelopment
1. Streetscape City level implementation 83
5
2.Drainage proposal City level implementation 77
1. Lakeview Restaurant Saduperi lake 94
2. Mango Mundy Redevelopment Mango Mundy and adjoining area 96
6
3. Neighborhood proposal Karugampudur 98
4. Service road proposal Chennai - Bangalore Highway 100
1. Arcot Street organization Arcot road and vicinity 126
2. Collectorate junction Arcot road - NH junction 127
7
3. The green corridor Palar river 128
4. RTO Big street junction RTO road 129
1. Lakefront Development Kalinjur lake 143
8
2. Urban Park Kathpadi 146
9.
 Kamarajar Periyar Commercial
10 1. Streetscape 153
Junction
2. Neighborhood Development Gandhi nagar 155
3. Chitoor junction Chitoor junction 185
4.Waterfront Development Gopalsamuthram 188
5. Revitalization of farmers market Katpadi road 192
6. Neighborhood design KRS Nagar 193
7. Administration Resurrection Mudiyathur 194
8. VIT main road development VIT road 195