Students: Doris Hochstrasser, Kathrin Zenhäusern
Location: Group work in Kolkata
Date: November, 2008
Type: Research project, student work, Salt Lake City

Background
Salt Lake City was devised in the 1960s and planned by the Yugoslav planner Dobrivoje Toscovic. It is located on an area of former salt lakes that were drained through the construction of a canal system surrounding the city extension. The layout of the city takes the shape of an abstracted bird of arrow and is divided into three sectors. Later, two additional sectors were added to the original design, out of which only sector five was developed, the other one being stopped by a rising awareness of the ecological implications that such a construction would cause.

Themes
Salt Lake City planning approach could be described as following an ‘ideal city’ model. It is a complete and self-contained entity, where the masterplan does not allow for extensions or alterations. The streets are laid out in axes following a central and symmetrical plan, with a division of sectors, and a clear hierarchy of street typologies giving a simple and coherent structure to the different element and housing parts. The whole masterplan is formulated with a modernistic agenda of providing light, space, air and greenery to the (upper middle-class) population of Kolkata. Salt Lake is an perfect case study to examine an ideal city, that has just been completed. Forty years after the formulation of its plan, and just as the last buildings are being constructed and the few remaining empty lots are being filled, it is time to step back and study whether this city part has fulfilled its initial goals and aims, where it has succeeded, and where it has failed. How is Salt Lake City integrated into the whole of Kolkata? On the one hand being completely surrounded by the dense fabric of the city, it is distinctly different in style and quality, and it uses delicate and subtle techniques of separating itself from this urban context. What is to become of Salt Lake City in the future? How does it compare to other ideal cities of similar scale and type? How will it react to the construction and development of Rajarhat?

Project
What was the main idea of Salt Lake City? How does it compare to other developments of that time, both in India and worldwide? Evaluate Salt Lake City, in terms of its original aspirations and its current conditions. Document the role Salt Lake plays in the development of a middle class and a growing IT sector in Kolkata. What is the social structure of Salt Lake? Measure its homogeneity and diversity? What is the future of Salt Lake?