India’s first AC railway station SMVT: what went wrong?

Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (SMVT) is India's first centrally air conditioned railway station, designed to look like an airport.

South Western Railways (SWR) spent 6 years and over 300 crores to build SMVT, so its disappointing to see how many issues there are with its design. At a first glance, the building looks like an airport, but as you get closer and start using the space you realize that it does a poor job of all the basics.

It’s difficult to reach, uncomfortable to wait at, and its confusing to navigate. Lots of space and material have been used but instead of creating value they feel incomplete and wasteful.

This video is an exploration of the 'Overengineering & underdesigning' trend that seems to dominate the urban construction industry right now. We argue that tools and policies have led to a construction style that builds spaces for vehicles, often at the cost of building for people. Buildings in this style tend to inconvenience people.  

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Chapters in this video:
00:00 Introduction
1:40 Railway Station, a place to wait
3:15 Circulation Efficiency
4:06 Outside & around SMVT
4:42 What we can learn
5:51 What next

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Credits
Voiceover - Ojas Shetty
Camera - Puneet Sachdev, Pravar Chaudhary, Inza S, Ojas Shetty
Graphics - Inza S
Edit - Pravar Chaudhary