Kolkata’s newest mall—City Centre, New Town, in Rajarhat—along the highway to the airport is not only the city’s newest hypermarket address, it is also being touted as an entertainment destination that outdoes its earlier avatar: the Charles Correa-designed City Centre at Salt Lake. Certainly the New Town mall is bigger. But is it better?
Downtown design
The large glass structure, which is part of the facade of City Centre, New Town, gleams in the sun, catching the eye of those travelling down the highway.
What appear to be two building blocks at City Centre, New Town, are, in fact, the arms of a single U-shaped structure. The street in between is the spine of the mall, covered with sails of tensile Teflon-coated membrane overhead. It leads to a courtyard that developers Ambuja Realty call Celebration Square. The walls on either side have different colours and finishes, to create the illusion of “a number of different buildings—as if designed by 20 different architects”, says Kapil Bhalla of Studio for Environment and Architecture, Mumbai. Kapil and his partner, Jayashree Bhalla, are the chief architects for City Centre, New Town.
Although the paved “street”, cubist frontage, semi-open corridors and steps in front are reminiscent of the Salt Lake mall launched in 2004 by Ambuja Realty, the resemblance ends there. Salt Lake’s open-air art galleries, its multitude of side streets and stairs are absent. The new mall chooses instead to guide the visitor in a smooth loop, with little room for confusion—or surprise. Indeed, once you leave the central courtyard and enter the foyer of elevators, you could be in almost any modern shopping centre. The traditional market feel of Correa’s design (much lauded by architects and critics) is absent. “The idea (at City Centre, New Town),” says Kapil, “was to pluck out one little precinct of Manhattan.”
Click here to view a slideshow of images of City Centre, Salt Lake
Click here to view photographs of City Centre, New Town
Also Read The mall and the city
But why would a mall in Kolkata, with its flourishing older shopping districts, want to mimic Manhattan? Isn’t there a certain paradox to creating “downtown” in a still nebulous suburb? And, of course, why move away from a milestone Charles Correa model to something with no distinct Indian identity? Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Realty, says: “Simply because you don’t want to see the same thing again and again. So we were looking for a more eclectic, more young feel.” Times, too, have changed. Neotia cites security concerns that resulted in just three entry/exit points in the New Town mall as opposed to 14 at the Salt Lake one.
Besides, adds Kapil, “It is not possible to compete with Charles Correa.”
Integration issues