CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

BARODA CITY
COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

GUIDES:

SUBMITTED BY:

AR. VIJAY MATAI AR. BRINTHA LAKSHMI

GURJOT SINGH RHIDUL SHARMA SANDIP PATIL

DEVELOPER
- Developers started out as middlemen for a collection of individuals wanting to live together. - They would buy land, create the common infrastructure and sell the individual plots. -This was the era of housing colonies. -However, the laymen were incompetent in building their own homes on these plots. -There arose a demand for ready to live houses in such colonies. -So developers introduced the concept of tenements, which was a housing colony with built property. -This also led to a saving in material & building costs, making the houses cheaper.

-As more developers started coming up, competition led to a policy of providing discounts. -However, when the break even limit was touched, developers started searching for new ways to attract customers. -This led to the trend of value addition. More and better common facilities were provided at the same costs, or at a modest premium. This attracted consumers in a huge way. - Most consumers preferred to pay some more for a permanent property in a prime location and/ or having better infrastructure & backup.

-The propaganda in earlier times used to be the newspaper and leaflets. - This changed to media like radio & local television. It is also a fashion to put up large billboards today. - Developers have also started creating brand value for their properties & themselves, in a way guarantying the goods.

THE PROPERTY MARKET

-The development of construction activity on the commercial front has been mainly due to change in technology. -Other changes affecting this activity in Baroda have been Riots, Floods, etc. -Earlier, there was no concept of fully commercial complexes.

-Major businesses were active in the old city markets, running out of ground floor roadsides of existing homes. -Existing nuclei were used for business purposes, as there was no demand for expansion.

- One of the first commercial buildings to come up on R C Dutt Road was National Plaza. - Its design borrowed heavily from an earlier building, Shoppers Stop by Ar. Yashwant Mistry. - It was based on the concept of split-level faade. Commercially, this increased the saleable price of the shops on lower ground level, by making it equally accessible & visible as the ground level shops. - National Plaza radically changed the face of commercial complex design. It introduced the concept of Sunk Plaza, wherein all shops faced. - This building was highly successful & its floor space was immediately sold out.

- All the later buildings to come up on R C Dutt Road were based on the same design idea, e.g. Alkapuri Arcade, Windsor Plaza, Siddharth Complex, etc.

- The concept of sunken plazas and split-levels was discontinued after the 1995 flood, wherein there was a tremendous loss of property on lower levels.

The concept of sunk plazas and split levels was discontinued after the 1995 flood, wherein there was a tremendous loss of property on lower levels. The earlier sunk plaza complexes dug the site right from the property line, leading to access & parking chaos. Subsequently, a regulation to provide a margin for parking & access was introduced. New regulations provide for -Adequate frontage at ground level -Roadside parking -Basement parking & services -Protection from flood through sump -Easy access in times of emergency

- Through the years there has been a change in the shopping attitude of consumers. - They now demand better value additions like 1. Conveyance 2. Parking 3. Branding 4. Communication, etc.

- The new suburban centers developed because the older centers could not cater to the changing needs of the consumers. - The businesses in the old city relocated to the new areas in order to maintain their clientele.

-This led to a tremendous increase in demand for commercial property in the new suburbs. -Barodas growth can be summed up as slow in current context, as compared to neighboring cities like Ahmedabad and Surat.

In any new suburb the development pattern follows as below: - First there is residential development -After residential development saturates, there is commercial development. -When both these have reached their prime, a need arises for public spaces like malls & multiplexes.

Earlier, there used to be specific markets for various goods eg jewellery, furniture, hardware, etc.
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-The new commercial complexes were non-specific in terms of whom they catered to. -They were a collection of shops, wherein any business could be set up with its own branding, -i.e. the business worked on individual capacity. -There was a collective identity to the property, but not individual. -This also led to problems of inadequate maintenance.

- Fancy facades to attract people

There is increasing use of glass & colour

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Due to simultaneous development in other surrounding areas, like Jetalpur Road, Productivity Road, Old Padra Road, etc. competition increased. Today the developers sell by providing value additions like collective branding, public spaces, etc. The latest commercial buildings have more flexible designs, i.e. they are shops as well as showrooms. Adequate consideration to other aspects like faade details, display boards, shop frontage, etc is now provided.

The newer commercial buildings have started to combine various kinds of functions, so as to give a complete satisfaction on every aspect of commercial activity. Buildings have become lighter & spans are larger. Maintenance has been reduced considerably due to use of permanent cladding in lieu of paint & plaster. Developers have started to create Branding for their construction, providing guarantee of quality & comfort. They want their buildings to stand out as landmarks, which also increases the market value of the property.

Other suburbs have started developing after saturation on R C Dutt Road. Corporates have started lending their brand to properties in order to increase market value, eg. ABS Towers, Citibank, etc.

MALLS