Mahra Rohtak Play(ce)making Competition

Inviting young architects, urban designers and planners to reimagine public spaces in Haryana.
 

The 'Mahra Rohtak' Play(ce)making competition offered young designers the opportunity to reimagine public spaces as a means of improving the quality of lives of citizens with a focus on youth. WRI India has identified nine public spaces in Rohtak city (Haryana) frequented by youth and in need of improvement. The winners have been announced and the contest is now closed for entries. Watch the launch video here

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Meet the Winners

WRI India along with Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Fondation Botnar, Global Road Safety Partnership, Rohtak Police, District Administration, Rohtak and Raahgiri Foundation selected 8 winners across 4 different sites. 

Site 1 - D-Park
Winner:  Pradhi Pathak, Pranay Karmakar and Urooj Iqbal
Special Mention: Antony Saju, Kalayana Kumar Gandhi and Md. Sadaf Hussain

Site 2 - Tikona Park
Winner: Aditi Ajay and Priyani Pranab
First Runner-up: Aishwarya Kulkarni, Shubha Shukla and Tanisha Sharma
Second Runner up: Radhika Mehrotra, Rounak Jain, Sashibhusan Sahoo, Shivani Khurana and Wasim Akram

Site 3 - Doctor's Hostel Road 
First Runner-up: Abhishek Dey, Manaswi Deshmukh, Rahul Raj Sakshi Reddy and Soha Samak
Second Runner-up: Palak Jain

Site 4 - Sector- 2 
Winner: June Sardar and Utkarsh Prasad

For any queries regarding the winning entries do write to us at MahraRohtak@wri.org

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Timeline

30th Sep 2021	Competition Launch and start of registrations
31st Oct 2021	Close of registrations
06th Nov 2021	Clarifications of questions / queries from participants
28th Nov 2021	Concept Note and Design Submission
Stage 1 Jury – Shortlisting of max 10 concepts per site
31st Jan 2022	Announcement of shortlisted concepts
21st Feb 2022	Preliminary Design Submission
Stage 2 Jury – Shortlisting of max 5 designs per site
1st March 2022	Announcement of Finalists
Final Presentation to Jury
5th May 2022	Culmination Event & Announcement of Winners

 

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Jury

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Background Context

Every year over 1.35 million people across the world lose their lives due to road traffic crashes with 155,000 people being killed in India alone.

In recent years, children and youth have become the biggest victims of road crashes. According to WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29.

The Botnar Child Road Safety Challenge (BCRSC) was launched to address this pressing issue. Rohtak in Haryana was one of the 12 cities across the globe, and one of two cities in India, that was selected for support under the BCRSC project.

One of the key components of the ongoing ‘Safer Mobility for Youth’ project is to improve the safety, accessibility, and experience of public spaces, especially where presence of youth is higher. Furthermore, the project encourages meaningful participation of youth in these deliberations resulting in this design competition that invites young architects and urban practitioners to become change-makers and ambassadors of safer public spaces.

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Why Rohtak?

Rohtak city is the administrative headquarters of Rohtak district situated in Haryana. About 70 km from Delhi Rohtak is home to many educational institutes with a combined enrolment estimated to be over 200,000 students. Some of the biggest institutes in the city are situated along the 5 highways that slice through the city, creating isolated neighbourhoods with poor inter-connectivity - especially for pedestrians and cyclists. This forces slow-moving traffic to share the road with high-speed highway traffic. There are very few crossings on the highways forcing pedestrians and cyclists to take great risks to cross the road.

In 2017, 561 crashes were reported in Rohtak district resulting in 252 fatalities. Similarly, in 2018 and 2019, 534 and 512 crashes resulted in 212 and 205 fatalities respectively. While there seems to be a decline in crashes and fatalities occurring in the district, the numbers are still too high and need urgent redressal.

Since the age of road traffic victims is not readily made public, it is difficult to ascertain the number of youth involved in these crashes. But given the presence of a high number college-going youth in the city, it is safe to assume that they would be the most affected section of the community.

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About the Partners

Botnar Child Road Safety Challenge and Safer Mobility for Youth

Safer Mobility for Youth, Rohtak project is convened by WRI India in partnership with District Administration of Rohtak, Rohtak Police and Raahgiri Foundation. The project is part of the Botnar Child Road Safety Challenge, a programme designed to address locally relevant road safety problems that affect children in small-and mid-sized cities in seven priority countries with practical, innovative, multi-sectorial and evidence-based interventions. The Challenge is managed by the Global Road Safety Partnership, a hosted program of the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies and based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Fondation Botnar

Fondation Botnar is a Swiss foundation established in 2003 with the core purpose of improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people in growing secondary cities around the world. To achieve this, Fondation Botnar acts as a catalyst, connecting diverse partners and investing in solutions that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and digital innovation.

Global Road Safety Partnership

The Global Road Safety Partnership is a hosted program of the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies and based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its mission is the sustainable reduction of road-crash death and injury in low- and middle-income countries GRSP does this by creating and supporting multisector road safety partnerships that are engaged with front-line good practice road safety interventions in countries and communities throughout the world.

District Administration, Rohtak

The Deputy Commissioner (DC) is the highest administrative authority within a district. The DC’s office is generally headed by an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer. Every district in the state has a DC. The main work of DC’s office is to manage the overall functioning of the various departments in their respective districts. The DC is in-charge of education, health, sanitation, finance and various other tasks.

Rohtak Police

Rohtak Traffic Police is a division of the Haryana Police responsible for the enforcement and management of traffic in the Rohtak City limits. The mission of Haryana Police is to help the common man, to provide him security and to create a peaceful and law-abiding community with his cooperation. Haryana Police is committed to uphold the Rule of Law, to prevent crime and to maintain law and order.

Raahgiri Foundation

Raahgiri Foundation is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization that has been working in the field of healthy and sustainable living and road safety for 5 years. It has been engaging directly with citizens to promote best practices among them. One of the most renowned movements by the foundation has been the Raahgiri Days / Nights. It has been a great success and is currently spread across 50+ cities in India.

Indian Institute of Architects

Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) is the National body of Architects in the country. Established in 1917, the institute today has more than 20,000 members and plays a major role in promoting the profession of architecture by organising and uniting the Architects of India to promote aesthetic, scientific and practical efficiency of the profession both in Practice and in Education.

IIA is represented on various national and international committees connected with architecture, art and the building industry and is also actively associated with International Union of Architects (UIA), The Architects Regional Council Asia (ARCASIA) and South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation of Architects (SAARCH).