Gera
- Client
- Gera Developments Private Ltd.
- Services
- Landscape Architecture
- Sector
- Office
- Location
- Pune, India
A landscape strategy that turns industrial constraint into ecological asset
Located on a former industrial site in Pune, the landscape strategy for Gera Developments mixed-use scheme tackles the sites constraints: a dominant powerline reserve cutting through the site, no existing spaces for recreation or public life, and a legacy of development that had left the area without coherent identity. The strategy embraces this industrial heritage and transforms the site’s most challenging infrastructure into its organising design idea.
A biodiversity spine
The powerline reserve, rather than treated as a liability, became the backbone of the landscape scheme. Following its route through the site, a biodiversity spine creates a continuous corridor of native planting, establishing a thriving environment for flora and fauna and forming a distinct green thread through the development. The spine has since been recognised as a meaningful contributor to local stormwater management, a function that emerged from ecological design principles rather than being engineered as a separate technical layer.
Heritage, connectivity and retail
A pedestrian walkway runs adjacent to a retail street, crossing the biodiversity spine at carefully considered points to maintain permeability across the site. Railway iconography is woven through the walkway design, reflecting the industrial and rail heritage of the area and giving the public realm a distinctive character rooted in its context. The landscape draws disparate elements of the site together: industrial past, ecological present, and commercial future, into a coherent and legible whole.
