Bhubaneswar

Nov 9 - 12

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted. Things have been a bit busy, so I'll start with the trip to the east, beginning with Bhubaneswar.

Bhubaneswar was the first of the new Indian capitals before Chandigarh and Gandhinagar and was planned by Otto Koenigsberger, originally from Germany, when Orissa gained independence from Bihar. Like the other two cities, it was also planned around the neighborhood unit. Different from the other cities is the fact that Bhubaneswar was already a town and was not begun from scratch. It had been an important temple town and pilgrimage site for a long time although it was a small town.

The capital complex is quite different than either Chandigarh or Gandhinagar. While Gandhinagar's is quite compact and symmetrically formal and Chandigarh's buildings are spread out with little relationship to each other, Bhubaneswar's is linear and focused along the main Janpath street within it's sector. Gandhinagar's takes up the entire sector square and has a place of prominence in the heart of the city. It was planned to be the terminal of a grand axis along Street 4 and the linear park in the center of the street contributes to the sense that this area is important and makes wayfinding easy and marks the importance quite obviously.

As Bhubaneswar's layout is linear, the layout does not emphasize the capital complex's importance. It is simply another unit along Janpath that one may stumble across rather than being led to it as in Gandhinagar's case. The capital buildings are also set back from the road, surrounded by a gate, and also by trees which obscure the full view. Then Chandigarh's capital, one has to search for because it is located well out of the way of day-to-day life. The buildings are spread out and oriented to provide a view of the mountains, rather than towards the street to be integrated into the city. It is difficult to even find the correct road to take you to the capital buildings.

Along Bidyut Marg and a few other main roads they have actually built separate bike and pedestrian lanes and the spaces haven't been encroached upon by vendors.

Also the neighborhood units are quite different in Bhubaneswar. Each layout is a bit different, and the units don't rely on the inner distributor road as in the other two cities. Many are laid out in an irregular grid. These residential areas are quite horizontal with far fewer apartment towers and many small bungalows each set back from the road and enclosed with a fence. Self-built housing has been built within empty space and integrated into free corners within the other housing units. It seems like this would not be allowed in Chandigarh, and instead self-built housing would be relegated to restricted areas.

The center community spaces of the neighborhood unit in Bhubaneswar are not always located immediately in the center of the unit and often surrounded by a wall. The space is usually used for different levels of schools, and it seems is rarely used for neighborhood commercial. Throughout the units, small informal stands are set up to sell various items, but it seems most commercial is along the edges.

It seems like housing types are not really mixed together by different classes.

The other cities' plans really emphasized open space and the idea of a green belt, whether or not it was implemented, but it seems that open space was not as much planned into Bhubaneswar. Chandigarh has Leisure Valley and Sukhna Lake and Gandhinagar has recreation space to the east near the river and had planned to damn the river to create a lake.

But the city definitely feels more “Indian” than either of the other two. Rickshaws are not a problem to find. While new development is definitely different from the original city and is set back from the road, it is similar to the development along S.G. Highway in Ahmedabad.

Markets

There is a main, formal shopping area on the south side of Unit 2, just bordering the main road, but not open to it. Completely facing the main road in this area are the green tin booths set up for vendors, but in addition to this, the road leading from the main road to the formal shopping area, vendors have also built their own stands. The formal shopping center is linear, going east/west. There is a big pedestrian mall in between the shops, but motorcycles are allowed and parked in the center, so it's rather dangerous for the pedestrians to walk at times. On the north side, the buildings seem to have been formally planned and built; however, on the south side there are many booths and shops that appear to have been self-built. All the development is only a single story. There seems to have been little restriction on signage as there had been in Chandigarh. Most of the shops sell clothing with some jewelry shops and ones selling Orissa silverwork. There are only a couple of restaurants and it seems no places selling groceries.

Across the wide street is a less formal market, that is very dense. Shops are very close together and the paths between them are very narrow. This market seems to sell almost everything – clothes, food, and household goods.

It seems like there is almost no commercial within the residential areas like there are in Chandigarh and Gandhinagar.