Pradeep Sachdeva is most remembered for his work as the architect of Delhi’s iconic open-plan crafts bazaar and food hub, Dilli Haat. But there is considerably more that he created - to free urban retail hubs from overwhelming structural confines - that will likely be relevant in the post-lockdown world. Whether it’s the quirky 20-acre Garden of Five Senses built on a rocky terrain with a bevy of upscale restaurants and nooks for cultural engagement, or the ongoing landscaping of streets and open spaces at Jama Masjid, his democratic and aesthetic designs fit right into the needs of social distancing in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. This is because Sachdeva, who was 63 when he passed away on May 31, focussed on a mass, pedestrian experience for projects in the public realm. They offer a breather in the smog of crowded urban living.
Pune-based architect Christopher Charles Benninger, his first “boss”, says Sachdeva played a unique role in the history of post-independent India as one of the first architects who rediscovered roots through craftspeople and natural and indigenous materials. “He did this first at Dilli Haat with crafts expert Jaya Jaitly, and a city cluttered with colonial alien ideas, western socialist PWD architecture, and faux modern junk, for the first time saw the Indian ethos formally enter the public realm,” he says. Dilli Haat is a genuine integration of innovative urban design with a people-centric, cultural experience, he explains, observing how it recaptured an urban site with a sewerage drain running through it.
Heart of a market
A traditional bazaar reimagined as an upmarket shopping centre seems an appropriate prescription for the times. Conservation architect and Aga Khan Trust CEO, Ratish Nanda, who revived Sunder Nursery and its monuments in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area a few years ago, says Sachdeva’s design at Dilli Haat, which emerged from the concept of the ‘haat’, really defined it for them: “…simple, economical yet beautiful and making every visitor happy and at ease, here his architecture touched the soul – as all great architecture should.” The public spaces he created are a good model for north Indian cities, believes architect Moulshri Joshi of the firm Space Matters.
Indeed, since Dilli Haat in 1994, other open retail spaces such as Dilli Haat Pitampura and Jaipur Haat, Emporia Plaza, Delhi, all by Sachdeva, and the Jodhpur Stepwell Retail Project and Dastkar at Kisan Haat in Delhi, by other designers, have provided an alternative to the mall experience.
Responsive architecture
As we prepare to trickle out of homes, it is well-ventilated open retail plazas that are likely to feel safer. “Dilli Haat is a greater, more responsive architecture than malls. It's porous with life in the shaded areas. Post pandemic, people will be more reluctant to visit closed spaces with air-conditioning,” says Joshi, whose favourite building of Sachdeva, however, “is the one he never built and the one I never saw. It is the 300 year-old house that Pradeep moved from Kerala to Gurgaon. I remember watching a film about it and it was mind blowing… For me it captured the essence of who Sachdev was as an architect”.
One of his last, ongoing public projects, the redevelopment of the streets in Shahjahanabad, Old Delhi, is set to revitalise a crowded, chaotic area, including the vista at Chandni Chowk. “With a larger focus on pedestrians, it is designed to be a vehicle-free zone. Whenever one goes to Old Delhi, the only thing one desires is to be able to walk comfortably. It is one of the biggest wholesale hubs, after all,” says Delhi-based architect Anupam Bansal. V Sunil, the former ad man associated with the Jodhpur Stepwell plaza, says we need more such ecosystems today. "Something for both tourists and locals, with a mix of hotels, retail, cultural spaces in the outdoors...where you can walk around and enjoy yourself,” he adds.
