Foster wins 365ha Indian state capital contest

  Foster + Partners has won an international competition for a new £500 million capital for the state of Andhra Pradesh in south-eastern India. 

18/01/2017

The studio, working in partnership with Mumbai architect Hafeez Contractor, was chosen for the prestigious commission ahead of an undisclosed shortlist of international firms last month.
Planned to complete in 2022, the project will create a new municipal capital for India’s eighth largest state, which lost its former capital, Hyderabad, to the newly formed state of Telangana two years ago.
The competition-winning 365ha masterplan will deliver a new civic core for the planned 200km² settlement on the southern banks of the Krishna river, known as Amaravati.
The estimated 740,000m² municipal centre will feature an assembly building, secretariat, offices for heads of departments and ministerial residences and guest houses.

 The entire Amaravati settlement – located on former agricultural land close to the existing cities of Guntur and Vijayawada – is expected to take up to 25 years to complete.





About 26,000 farmers are being relocated from the area as part of the development. A foundation stone for the new city was laid by prime minister Narendra Modi in 2015.

Commenting on the scheme, Contractor said: ‘We are working with Foster + Partners, who are the lead architects and are taking the project forward. There will be a first presentation and then three or four charrettes so everyone can have their say.
‘After that Foster + Partners will put forward a proposal and then we will take over and add local input and we hope it will be a great project. We are hoping to deliver two of the buildings and there are other buildings where the contracts are still open which we are hoping to build too.’
Japan-based Maki and Associates won an earlier competition for the city’s civic core in 2015 but the studio’s winning scheme was later abandoned and a fresh contest held.
Foster + Partners declined to comment on the scheme.