The Nani Daman Jetty Garden site in Daman city is a corner plot of 4000 sq.m. near St. Jerome’s Fort adjacent to an existing jetty flanked by a road and St Jerome’s to its east and private property to the west. There are some 20 fully grown trees dotted throughout the site. The site had witnessed badly planned spaces, incremental and unrelated landscape elements, and sculptures that over a period of time made the park unutilized and derelict.

The opportunities the site offered included an exotic setting adjacent to a Portuguese Fort, flanked by colorful fishing boats along the waterfront and vast expanse of views – a perfect opportunity to re-create public loci where the land meets the sea and sky. This distinct brief led to a design investigation to create a public place that resonates people’s aspirations and establish a sense of reverence to the water, a multi-faceted space for all age groups, capturing the beautiful play of the southern sun in the vast ocean and a place to celebrate Narali Poornima boat race along the waterfront.

To this response, the first priority was to establish a pavilion on the cardinal axis that would become a focal point of an attraction along the waterfront and create a sense of shade and comfort along the south-facing promenade. The pavilion has to be lean, non-obstructive, multi-layered, modular yet rhythmic that captures the stark sunlight and creates a possibility of spatial experience.

Post establishment of the pavilion the entrance spine was created as an extension of the street to the water edge. The entrance area is defined by an entrance frame canopy, a semi-open reading pavilion, and public amenities. The sides of the entrance spine are designed with kids play zone, senior citizens corner, and larger landscaped areas. These spaces are integrated around existing mature trees.

Care is taken in detailing the garden areas with ramps, low height wall for better transparency and active edges along the street, response to the fort wall with steps in form of amphitheater, tapering compound wall, selection of material that camouflage with darker shades of the fort. The material used included galvanized MS section structure cladded with Canadian wood in the pavilion, darker shade granite flooring, Kota stone flooring for seating zones, and EPDM soft flooring for play areas.

The planting design intent was to enhance the site and not have it be overly curated. We preserved around 20 trees, including Pipal, Ashoka, Ruber Tree, Neem, and Gulmohar. Identifying these helped us to create a master layout, naturally segregating the garden in shaded and non-shaded areas. The planting design draws inspiration from native species with an added layer of colorful perennials to create an inviting experience year-round. In all the new garden design aims to provide a welcoming street presence, a great public space, relation with water and sky along the promenade, and an enhanced last urban park in Nani Daman area.

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