Amaravati- Happy City

A consultation project in collaboration with happy city Inc. Vancouver, Canada is based in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India. The project involved suggestive measures in urban design of Rosella housing on the basis of enhancing happiness among the residents through design.The idea behind the project was to provide a happy environment for the future residents of the housing . The design recommendations were made considering the local context and the requirements of the residents.

Happiness by design framework : It is a framework designed how urban destressors and positive mental health aspects are associated and it details outs the impact of the recommendation on the psychological well being of the people. 

Some of the recommendations are as follows:
1. Park connectors: The purpose of this idea is to create a seamless experience park connecting the ground floors directly to green spaces.
Amaravati.PDF
2. Configuring the built form for sociability:The iterations in the built forms through occasional terraces in between enhance the chances of social gathering.Vertical greens provide for chance interaction and semi public spaces. Overlooking balconies enhance surveillance through eyes on the street.

    1. Spaces for all: Space for all gives multifunctional ,more semi public and public spaces to the residents ageing from 8 to 80 years old . The aim of the recommendation was to provide recreational spaces which can serve multiple activities such as walking and jogging areas , sitting spaces for elderly , kids playing zones etc through interventions such as free standing walls , trees for shade as well as a partition.

    2. Color and emotion:color has a significant impact on our minds and is an important element in indian context . it enhances wayfinding and provides identification to a place.

    3. Street at eye level: Street at eye level provides guidance to the minds of people using the street through various facade treatments , public art and cultural aspects giving a character to the place making it  a landmark or a node for the people.

    4. Festival spaces: festivals play a huge role in  indian culture. It is a symbol of positivity and social gatherings thus making an extremely important point to be considered in designing happy spaces in india.

    5. Activity generators: Activity generators  through informal activities around the housing gives natural surveillance enhancing feeling of safety  among the residents.