The competition was organized by the AUDA (The Architecture + Urban Design Academy) in collaboration with the Commonwealth Heritage Forum. It invited entries from students and professionals, both nationally and internationally, focusing on reimagining heritage spaces with transformative urban ideas.
Their project, titled “The Park Street Palimpsest: Envisioning Living Heritage,” reimagines the role of South Park Street Cemetery and its neighbouring Scottish and Lower Circular Road Cemeteries within the evolving urban fabric of Kolkata. The proposal emphasizes integrating intangible heritage, ecological restoration, and spatial memory through interventions at the site, street, and city scales. It presents a framework that blends heritage conservation with public realm design and layered urban experiences.
The proposal envisions heritage not as a static artifact but as a living system — responding to time, space, and people. Through strategies focused on cemetery edge activation, interpretive trails, adaptive reuse of surrounding structures, and pedestrian-friendly streets, the project repositions cemeteries as interactive, inclusive spaces within a larger urban continuum.
The prestigious jury included KT Ravindran, Liane Bauer, Neeta Das, Sarah Neville, Suneet Mohindru, and Victoria Hellewell — leading experts in urban design, heritage conservation, and planning.
Abstract: Rooted in Kolkata’s layered history, this proposal for South Park Street Cemetery weaves spatial memory, ecological and heritage restoration and conservation, and public life. Through thematic trails, adaptive reuse, and a subterranean museum, the design interprets cemeteries as civic and cultural spaces that live beyond time.
