Brand Bengaluru: Urban Village Square initiative expanded across city
Bengaluru: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is forging ahead with its 'Brand Bengaluru' initiative by developing a network of "Urban Village Squares" and other neighbourhood-scale public spaces to promote walkability, local identity, and community interaction.
As part of this effort, five urban village spaces have already been completed — at Brigade Road Junction, Basaveshwara Circle (Mourya Junction), Shivananda Circle (below the flyover), Race Course Road, and Anand Rao Circle. A sixth site, near the BHEL Circle on Mysuru Road, is currently under development.
"At Race Course Road junction, the theme is pedestrian safety, and we focused on pedestrian improvements. At Brigade Road, the concept is centred around a war memorial," M Lokesh, special commissioner (projects - central), told TOI.
"These themes are chosen after holding public consultations and considering what suits the locality best. Each design goes through multiple iterations before being finalised," he added.
Speaking about the upcoming space at BHEL Circle on Mysuru Road, Lokesh said, "We are incorporating elements of Channapatna Bombe (toy) to symbolise the cultural connection between Mysuru and the people of Bengaluru."
The overarching aim, he said, is to create inclusive and inviting spaces for people to relax and spend time in — a core vision of the Brand Bengaluru initiative.
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The redesign of the five completed junctions cost around Rs 10 crore, with an average execution timeline of three months per junction.
To expand the initiative further, BBMP launched a city-wide citizen engagement campaign, inviting residents to nominate potential public spaces in their neighbourhoods. Citizens can choose from 13 predefined categories — including kattes and urban village squares — to suggest locations that can be mapped and developed in future phases.
Once nominated, the sites will be assessed for feasibility. Only suitable locations will proceed to design tenders and architectural competitions. Costs and materials will be determined at the design stage to allow site-specific adaptability.
BBMP has already funded two neighbourhood-scale public spaces and identified two more under its Urban Revamp Design Challenge, which invited architects to reimagine public spaces.
Insights from these pilots are now being scaled city-wide, with typical implementation timelines ranging from 6 to 9 months after the design phase.
The classification of these public space categories was developed with inputs from urban design experts at Sensing Local and the Indian Institute of Urban Designers (Karnataka), ensuring both contextual relevance and design quality.
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