The Vertical City Part 2 Project 2010 Vineet Vora Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute Mumbai | India In the recent past, Mumbai and several other metropolises have seen unprecedented urban sprawl in a relatively short span of time. There is thus, an obvious shortage of space for accommodation in the city, in turn causing a collective usurping of open public spaces, recreational amenities etc. what results is the eventual death of the city Architects are reduced to being service providers and the profession reduce to nothing but a form making exercise for tireless monotonous residential buildings. The resulting lack of variety that has crept in simply contradicts the mixed program and spaces that form the essential, vital ingredient of the meaning of the word metropolis. Beyond the extreme population density, Mumbai faces further constrictions due to its coastline and the city continues to grow horizontally north words causing serious problems of commuting resulting inevitably in pollution, stress, reduced productivity and shortage of time.An optimistic outlook towards verticality is required. Vertical Architecture is accredited with a reduced footprint and has the capacity to release much required space. Can verticality be enriched far beyond the hermetic repetitive stacking of monotonous spaces? With a jump in scales, a new typology of vertical structures can be imagined, one which can serve as a city itself, a micro vertical city if you will. The problems of monotony can be dealt with a novel approach toward function and architectural programming. Such architecture can serve as a ground breaking solution to the dreadful effects of urban sprawl. 'The Vertical City' is a probe into this typology. It is an experiment, trying to combine the varied experiences of a city into one structure. A possible solution, for future metropolitan cities. Architecturally there arises a completely novel experience in such structures which can be exploited with program to further enrich the design. Such an approach shall legitimize the feasibility of mega structures and their potential in saving our cities. In his design project titled ‘The Vertical City’, Vineet Vora has aimed to present the idea of a mega structure housing a city. His process began with dreamlike sketches of an alternative future. Right from the beginning, the idea was to achieve a well detailed, positive and workable response. Considering the scale of such an architecture his approach has thoughout been a holistic one, where in contrary to a sequential design process in stages, a design that responsibly answered questions of structure, services, circulation, space planning and environmental issues was though of, from the concept stage. The Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) in Mumbai city is a recent infrastructural development adding a new north-south corridor to the densely populated and congested Mumbai city. The vertical city being set along the BWSL near Mahim Bay (Mumbai) allows for the supportive infrastructural required by a mega structure, at the same time avoiding any added stress on the already inadequate road system of the mainland city. The challenge in planning a structure of this scale is enormous, and he has successfully been able to break down the scale with his architectural articulation. He has been able to reinvent the tall structure typology with a very simple yet unique and ground breaking architectural approach.Vineet Vora is an excellent student with exceptional imagination. He has an analytical approach which enables him to develop thoughtful and thought provoking architecture as I have experienced while guiding him. ‘The Vertical City’ is an exemplar of this analytical approach. Tutor(s) Prof. Shakti Parmar