Form and Space Studies | Semester 5 | A18 Batch
Mentors : Ravindra Punde, Sabaa Giradkar, Dipti Bhaindarkar, Malaksingh Gill, Faizan Khatri, Shrikar Bhave
-Samruddhi Pawar, Dipti Bhaindarkar, Sabaa Giradkar
The studio started with understanding the complex relationship of the urban form, resource consumption and architecture. Second important aspect to understand was the inhabitation of the aged bodies in buildings, by observing their movements in the house/ experiences from the past. These observations were collected and mind maps for the same were constructed which triggered spatial design explorations.
Mind map of networks, movements, densities along with conceptual drawings and physical/digital models where resource cycles and the primary needs and opportunities for the aged bodies was merged to understand the space articulations. Some Architectural Questions which emerged through the studio were ‘How can architecture afford celebration of a resource?’, ‘How an aged body moves through the space?’ and ‘How the space can cater to the inevitable events of aging and the rise in the population of senior citizens?’. These questions thus formed the trigger points for intervention ideation.
The site was located in a tight urban context of Mumbai and aimed to work with resource cycles and their manifestation in the architectural space cycles. Students sketched/illustrated the spatial ideas, made narrative sketches and explored how resource systems like air, wind, water, light, material, labour, knowledge, skills can be manifested as an attitude in the space making activity rather than mere appendices for the project.
The Built-up area of the project was 1200-1500 sq.mts approximately. Each student after understanding the context for its density, immediate neighbourhood, built-form, stakeholders of the context articulated an intent statement for what an home for aged bodies means. This exercise crafted the individual programs for each one. Each mentor designed individual group trajectories for the project which included stages from conceptual triggers, to narrative detailing, to design development, learnings from precedent studies and finally design detailing. The attempt of this module was to rethink the architecture of resources in the building. Thus use of alternative construction techniques and materials were encouraged. These simultaneous processes helped to understand the relationship of new practices of harnessing and utilising resources with habitation and its spatial possibilities. The spaces started to structure such that the harnessed resources became a part of the experience of life and living and inhabitation.
Home as a park
Mohini Surve
This project looked at making the home for the aged open and accessible inviting neighbours to become an active part of the space. It was imagined to become a neighbourhood park to expand the community circle for the inhabitants. The idea of this house was to create a cultural and emotional exchange between inhabitants and the neighbourhood community. While the inhabitants have their daily routine, the neighbourhood are expected to stroll through the space, also become the temporal inhabitants, creating possible exchanges of thoughts and ideas. The space diagram for the project was generated with a set of courtyards. The focus of the project was to include vegetation as a major resource such that it becomes part of the experience along with actively creating a microclimate. The skeletal structure to host the vegetation is thin and light bamboo scaffold which adds a layer of porosity and lightness in spatial imagination. The built form thus becomes one with the vegetation layer, building systems are infused in the grid of scaffolds thus creating a language for the project.
Design for Disassembly (Care-home for the elderly)
Neel Shah
This project emerged from my personal experience with my grandparents. Whenever my family goes out for a trip, our grandparents never join us. We never leave them home alone because they always need someone to look after and take care. Whenever this situation arises we always leave them at our relatives house. Hence this leads me to the idea of developing a programme where senior citizens can live/rent for the time being. It can also act like a refuge island for them to escape from their daily routine and life.
This project begins with the concern of dealing with the waste and debris produced after the building is demolished. What do we do of all this waste? Can it be reused/recycled or upcycled?
With these provocations, the design intervention tended towards working with the idea of assembly and disassembly. The process adopted is thus of a dry construction system where the modules and elements are assembled and can be reused and upcycled after their lifecycle is completed in a particular project. Use of materials like steel scaffoldings and cloth helped in achieving the idea of disassembly. The lifespan of the building is 25 years after which it can be expanded or disassembled depending on the requirements. The dormitories are designed such that the space is dynamic and is capable to expand and contract as per the need. They are imagined as rooms at night with only smaller pockets of open spaces whereas it can be easily converted into a large assembly hall during the day. The project thus looks at the built form as a service and not as an end product.
Live Work Space
Arnav Mundhada
Home for senior citizens is explored as a work cum living opportunity for its users. The aged bodies portray slow movement but varied spaces of physical engagements and activities. Hence the site programmatically provides opportunity for small scale productions like knitting wool accessories, growing vegetables in the kitchen garden which also creates economic opportunities for the residents. All these programs are also envisioned to become the interaction spaces with use of staggering floor plates. The neighbouring community are invited to the site to generate possibilities for intergenerational learning, caring and sharing. People here become the resource to activate and accentuate the life on the site. The site also accommodates kitchen gardening and along with water harvesting. The water from the kitchen garden is thus treated using reed beds to become part of the landscape.
A Home Together
Khushi Singla
Old age homes are seen as places for the afterlife (active years), so are the orphanages where the future of the children are left to their destiny. Both these popular notions pushed me to think why is there envisioning of an indecisive life and hence the idea of the home for few. Moreover why there has not been much possibilities explored for such different age groups coming together and crafting their home and life together. Hence, the project intended to get both orphans and old age people under one roof. This would develop a symbiotic relationship and provide for an emotional support and exchange balance.
As different age groups inherently need different requirements and scales of spaces the structure was designed to have private space at the same time collective spaces for interaction and exchange. Different scales of spaces may not necessarily demand for but definitely allow for exploring different light scapes in relation to the air movement from inside to outside. And hence light, wind become the main resource to craft the spaces and the structure in total. Wind catchers were used as an element which would channelize the circulation of wind naturally within the built form, thus countering to the humidity in the region. The threshold of the walls, roof and openings became the elements to be played with to allow the natural flows across the structures and hence brick jaalis, sloping roof with long eaves, variable fenestrations, vertical fins, courtyards became central elements crafting the language and the form of the structure.
Chawls – A prototype for Home for the Aged
Riddhi Shah
This project investigated the possibilities of social interaction which a chawl typology could afford. Further, the spatial articulation of the home for the aged was achieved by reconfiguring the elements in the chawl typology. The diagram thus developed with pockets of spaces stringed together with a common corridor. These interactions in the home for the aged were imagined as interaction between each other and the neighbourhood or the bodily interaction with the environment and the built form. These bodily engagement are usually derived from the childhood associations and experiences, be it the sound of birds chirping early morning, smell of the earth on first rains, walking barefoot on grass, sound of rain falling onto the aluminium sheet or just the act of watching stars while sleeping on the terrace and so on. It’s a habitat where one dwells in comfort and feels nurtured and liberated.
The project looked onto the affordability of social interaction in spaces and how the idea of porosity could be formulated without hindering the privacy of an individual. The process started with mapping the activities of the everyday and interactions happening in the existing neighbourhood thereby capturing the various pause points. This led to the articulation of the programme of the solar community kitchen where people would cook and eat together. The kitchen waste generated would then be used for composting.
The main intent of the studio was to build relationships with the resources and the architectural form and its spatial configurations. Rainwater being considered as necessary and free of cost resource , is harnessed. It is channelled through pathways running in the entire built form right from the terrace to the underground water tank creating a sonic and visual experience of the flowing water.
The structure is designed taking into account the movement of the aged body through space. Each floor has a corridor which connects all the spaces offering easy accessibility, free circulation and a sense of security of people being around. Several inner pockets were created which led to a sense of cosiness and created several pause points for interaction.
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