Technology Module, A18 Batch
Mentors : Dipti Bhaindarkar | Milind Mahale
Experts : Suhas Chande | Shrikar Bhave | Arun Kale | Gauri Joshi | Ravindra Punde
-Dhanvi Shah, Dhruv Sachala, Dipti Bhaindarkar, Milind Mahale
The studio focused on developing an understanding of large span volumes with inquiries into material properties and geometric articulation -through an iterative form generation process. This studio’s provocation was to investigate how geometry is deduced from material properties, forces in the structural system and construction technologies?
For this studio, the students were asked to choose a site anywhere in the world. Further, each site was investigated based on socio-cultural aspects along with terrain and climatic conditions. The programme on the site is imagined to be a maker’s space. Based on their study of the site, each student worked out what this maker space will be in that specific context – this was based on readings of the landscape, of people, and their social and cultural practices, etc.
The material palette and geometric articulations were formulated through the local building practices, local craft and character, climatic and geographical conditions. Along with the initial site study, the students explored different engineers and architects who have explored materials and processes in varied contexts. Works ranged from Frie Otto’s soap bubble experiments to sandbag experiments of Santiago Calatrava to origami explorations to generate folded plate variations.
Based on this study, each student developed a base diagram for their programme. Each material presented the students with its potentials and limitations within which their structural system was optimized. The structural system ranged from portals, shell structures, folded plate forms, advanced slabs, and tensile structure. The students articulated the envelope according to climatic conditions and construction possibilities. This envelope was evaluated through software for structural analysis, building physics – airflow, daylighting, and thermal comfort. Based on the conceptual understanding of the building envelope performance, the details for the same were designed and detailed.
The derived structural geometry and form were further articulated for spatial experience, programme, building systems and environmental considerations.
This course traced the trajectory of the tectonic idea in the evolution of larger spans through precedent examples and tested the limits of material to span over larger volumes.
Museum Space
Dhanvi Shah
Besides the emerald grassy hues on one side and surrounded by the Caribbean Sea on the other in Quintana Roo, Mexico, is a small town called Tulum. The site was located near the Mayan port on the coastline. One of the guiding factors to derive the form was respecting the palace and its morphology, yet having one’s own identity. The museum was a long rectangular, solid concrete box cantilevered by rocks, with curved interior walls resembling the wet soil. Space, in turn, becomes an object that is constantly being crafted and frames the beach’s views. The other half was a safe space to house women and their kids to sell artefacts and form a community platform to gather and discuss ideas. The skin was a steel cage precariously placed on the beach with aluminium jali to allow cross ventilation.
E-Sports Complex at Copenhagen
Shubh Sankhala
The site is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Denmark has recently been a place where there have been a lot of emerging E-sports teams, hence the design is meant to facilitate this. The site is situated around a university, such that the E-sports facility can be used by the university students.
Denmark is relatively a cold country, with moderate rainfall all across the year. It has short summers and long winters. The material palette ranged from the use of concrete, glass and steel. As the site is cold, it was necessary to include as much heat and light from the sun, which was facilitated by the use of proper orientation for glass. The built form was evaluated with sun path and sun angels to resolve the geometry of the form orienting the built form to receive light and heat. A kinetic facade was introduced to maximize air changes and air circulation within the built form.
Meme Memorial
Diwakar Motwani
In September 2018, European Union approved a controversial copyright directive, that gave record labels like Sony, Universal Studios, and various other collection societies a right, where they can legitimately charge several existing content-hosting websites like Youtube and Instagram, for hosting their content without a license. Thus, Article 13 obliged all these platforms to be legally responsible for the content they host, which even includes memes! Memes without their referential pictures are fundamentally dead, necessitating the requirement for a meme-making space.
Union parliament and the national museum are the immediate contexts of the built-form. The language of such an interpretation of space comes from the spatial exploration of satire and diagrams. The built-form borrows the idea from the museum where the idea of suspending the dead (reptiles and dinosaurs), an Instagram scroll here, is imagined to be a series of dynamically suspended footbridges. Several masts are required to support these scrolls and are used as the key structural members for spanning, along with the PTFE membrane.
The overall form and composition started with three box-like masses organized according to the winter sun exposure. The masses interconnect and resist the rigidity of the site, incorporating the footbridges and other structural details within it. At the periphery of the roof, the skin consists of four-layered glass allowing optimum inlet of solar radiance, beams that channel water to the column that flushes it through the plinth, and an extended shading skin that allows passive heating in the winters but passive cooling in the summers. The translucent PTFE sheets avoid glazing of the screens in the footbridges. The structure is detailed through the lens of modularity.
The Music Community
Neel Shah
The site is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands very close to the railway station as well as the highway. The location of the site is also very important as it lies very close to the music studios where various artists come to produce and record their labels. The whole project is based on the DJ community and a place for them to produce and perform. This becomes an environment for them to work and build their own network.
The structure is made using bricks and steel trusses. The materiality plays an important role as it works very well in the climate of the Netherlands with cold weather and cloudy skies for the whole year. The most common material used in this region is Dutch bricks which are maroon in colour and very well suited for this climate. Structurally the building spans using the idea of flying buttress and steel trusses supported and tied by brick beams and columns.
The project focuses on the kind of lights quality that enters the structure, as well as the corridor on each side of the structure, which acts as a buffer zone.
कलाकारों रा धौरा (Craftsmen’s/ Artisans’/ Artists’ dunes) – A Makers’ Space for Arts and Retrofits
Rishabh Chajjar
Indian handicrafts are famous for their intricacy and diverse cultural relationships, Jodhpur has emerged as one of the largest exporters of art and artefacts for the past five decades. There are many renowned names who are in the business which reduces the opportunity of creating new crafts, this makes it almost impossible for a common craftsman to endeavour her skills to create. Therefore this space will allow artists and craftsmen to do their work independently and to learn from each other.
Nowadays many old heritage elements are readopted and retrofitted to curate them architecturally, people retrofit old doors (Haveli Darwazas) and windows (Jharokhas) into newly built buildings and their vivid landscape. These objects can be brought directly by the villagers to this space since its proximity to the state transport station is high and it’s in the vicinity of the old city which is culturally rich.
The building sprawls all over the plot like sand dunes. The whole structure is internally and externally covered by a 3 coat lime plaster mixed with copper sulphate which in turn keeps the structure cool, it is anti-termite and the building merges in the city’s blue blanket.
The Levitating Bamboos
Sakshi Sawant
Nestled in the monsoon-laden planes of Cherrapunji, the structure creates a connection between the valley’s drama and the sanctity of the land. The area experiences heavy rainfall and is visited by tourists throughout the year. The maker space is divided into two halls, each of which is supported by four columns; one produces jams and the other exhibits the jam-making process and acts as a selling unit. The structure is made of bamboo because of its high tensile strength and availability. To soften the rigid infrastructure use thick curvilinear bamboo columns. Multiple activities are happening on different levels like a cafe, viewing gallery, managers cabin and conference rooms each having a different experience of the panoramic scene around. Not only it acts as a retreat but also becomes a public zone for the localities.
Japanese Health Care Unit
Smit Lakkad
The idea of the maker’s space was to encourage Japanese traditional health care methods in Melbourne City, Australia. The site is located amidst residential, commercial and hospitality projects, which makes the place suitable for a health care amenity. The structure derives its geometry from traditional Japanese symbols where it takes the form of a large roof that envelopes the whole structure, unifying the interior spaces. It sits around huge boulders which leads to elevating the structure and minimising the footprint on the ground. Skylights and parable building skin allows for an interesting play of light along with suitable light conditions throughout the year. The interior layout is worked out such that the outside landscape flows within the space. Based on environmentally sustainable construction methods the structure explores glulam timber with steel for easy assembled construction method.
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