(pr)OpenCity: A People-Centric Urban Design Model for Adaptive Future Habitats

(pr)OpenCity is an experimental urban design proposal that rethinks the relationship between people, architecture, interiors, and the city. Developed by Sushant School Of Art & Architecture and Shaurya Chauhan, the project was recognized as a People’s Choice Award entry of Habitats '20. It presents a powerful design framework built around participation, adaptability, and the lived realities of urban communities.

At its core, (pr)OpenCity questions how cities are planned, who gets to shape them, and how architecture can become more responsive to daily human needs. Instead of treating the city as a finished object designed only by authorities, planners, or institutions, the project imagines the city as an open system. It becomes a collective platform where users, architects, urban designers, and communities actively participate in shaping the built environment.

The selected SEO keyword for this article is urban design, as the project strongly deals with city-making, public space, community participation, adaptive infrastructure, and future development models. Through this keyword, the article positions (pr)OpenCity within broader conversations on participatory urban design, inclusive architecture, and adaptive habitat planning.

Rethinking Urban Design Through Open-Sourcing

The project draws from the idea of “open-sourcing” in design. In digital culture, open-source systems allow users to access, modify, improve, and share a product or framework. (pr)OpenCity transfers this logic into architecture and urban design. It suggests that the city should not remain a closed, rigid, top-down structure. Instead, it should become an editable and responsive environment shaped through continuous feedback.

The proposal begins with a critical observation: rapidly urbanizing cities often face a gap between official development strategies and the everyday aspirations of citizens. Cities such as Delhi, Dhaka, and Manila reveal how urban transformation is frequently driven by large-scale planning systems that do not always account for informal economies, daily rituals, temporary occupations, or the social fabric of communities.

(pr)OpenCity responds to this condition by proposing a collaborative design method. It mediates between the “user” and the “urban,” allowing city spaces to become more flexible, democratic, and adaptable. The project does not simply design buildings. It designs a method for future development.

The City as a Living System

In conventional urban design, cities are often imagined as stable arrangements of streets, buildings, functions, and services. (pr)OpenCity challenges this static view. It understands the city as a living system where programs shift, people move, economies mutate, and spaces are constantly reinterpreted.

The project identifies three major scales of intervention: urban design, architecture, and interior details. These scales are not treated as separate layers. They are connected through a feedback loop that begins with user needs, moves into design ideology, and concludes with adaptive details.

This three-tiered model gives the project its strength. It begins with direct research, including surveys, videography, interviews, and on-ground observations. These methods capture the lived experience of citizens rather than relying only on abstract planning data. The result is a more grounded and people-centric urban fabric.

The city is understood through movement, events, programs, and spatial trends. This means that urban design is not only about roads and buildings. It is also about how people gather, trade, rest, celebrate, work, commute, and improvise.

A 300-Acre Development Framework for Sarojini Nagar

The project is situated within a 300-acre development context in Sarojini Nagar. This choice is significant because Sarojini Nagar represents the layered complexity of Indian urban life. It contains formal planning, informal activity, shopping cultures, residential zones, public movement, and everyday negotiations between people and space.

(pr)OpenCity does not view this complexity as a problem to erase. It treats it as the foundation for future design. The proposal recognizes that existing urban life already contains intelligence. Street vendors, informal workers, residents, visitors, and daily commuters constantly adapt the city to their needs.

Instead of replacing this condition with a controlled master plan, the project creates a framework that can absorb, support, and amplify existing patterns. It proposes an urban design strategy where modular systems, public interiors, and adaptive infrastructures are introduced into the city without destroying its social vitality.

Urbanity: Inclusive Urban Fabric and Collective Vision

The first scale of the project is urbanity. At this level, (pr)OpenCity focuses on the broader city fabric. It looks at how public space can become more inclusive, accessible, and socially active.

The proposal emphasizes orientation, sustainability, facilitation, and rejuvenation. These principles suggest that urban design should help people navigate the city, support social sustenance, improve pedestrian and non-motorized movement, and reactivate existing urban nodes.

The project uses streets, plazas, open areas, and transitional spaces as platforms for public life. Instead of creating isolated architectural objects, it strengthens the connections between built form and civic activity.

The diagrams show an urban field filled with movement, small-scale interventions, public programs, modular installations, and temporary structures. These elements suggest a city that is not fixed but continuously produced by its users.

Architectonics: Responsive Tectonics and Program Mutation

The second scale is architectonics. This layer explores how architectural systems can respond to changing programs and social needs. The project uses the term “responsive tectonics” to describe construction systems that are not rigid or predetermined.

In this framework, buildings and structures are capable of mutation. They can absorb new uses, support emerging programs, and respond to social events. The architecture is not only a container for function. It becomes a dynamic system that allows re-calibration, response, dignity, and pacification.

The project proposes an “Open Cathemeral Complex,” where activities change across morning, mid-day, and night. This is an important urban design idea because cities do not operate in a single time frame. A space that serves one purpose in the morning may support a different activity at night.

By studying daily routines, the project creates architecture that can accommodate multiple programs. Co-working spaces, gyms, dance studios, public gathering zones, informal work areas, and cultural activities are layered together. This creates a more efficient and socially active environment.