Downtown Office Conversion Study, Boston

Solomon Cordwell Buenz 2023

Response to an RFP issued by Boston Planning and Development Authority to revitalize the city center and reimagine a downtown where old and new residents, workers and visitors can live,play and work in new ways together4

Leverage Nodes and Create Affinities

Leverage nodes and create affinities

Activate Outward-Facing Edges

Activate outward facing edges

Activate Main Corridors

Activate main corrdiors

Create Neighborhood Identity

Create neighborhood identitites

Explorations with Ai and Grasshopper- Crypto Cities

Professional Development 2022

Exploring the relationship between mind and machine through abstract algorithms and testing the rationality through the rapidly developing AI medium

Incremental matrix showing how flow lines can be used as a prompt for generation of city layouts detailing blocks, pathways, building footprints and public spaces

Neither Utopian nor dystopian, AI allows for new ways to explore algorithms

1. Architecture of Associations: Persistence of Memory

Undergraduate Architecture Thesis: Expressions of space as a container for public memory

George Anderson

Correa

The fateful night of 2-3rd December 1984, also recollected by many as ‘that’ night was when an unsuspecting city, deep in slumber was turned into a gas chamber by the toxic fumes that leaked from the erstwhile Union Carbide factory. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy, as it came to be known, is widely acknowledged as the world’s worst industrial disaster, almost wiping out an entire city within a matter of a few horrific hours. The design proposal, symbolically and functionally, seeks to reconnect the vacant and abandoned site with the urban fabric of Bhopal and make a positive contribution to it. In the context of the Bhopal Gas tragedy, it seeks to communicate a meaningful and relevant narrative to its visitors by addressing the aspects of healing, remembrance and deterrence. The aim is to convert the site from an urban blight to an urban resource, from a site that inflicted trauma to one that evokes positive memories for the future

L.S.Raheja School of Architecture

The spaces in the museum use the objects of memory existing on site to evoke a particular feeling corresponding to the timeline of events

Looking Back

The Subterrenean Experiential Museum tells the story of that fateful night. It turns the timeline of the tragedy into an architectural narrative by taking people through the spaces that act as a guided path and eventually culminate in a view of the factory preserved as an artefact.

TheDeceitspace Displayingthefaulty equipmentleftonsite towardsEntryanddescent tragedy

Inevitabilityrampsleadtoan imminentdisaster

TheTheGabionSpace layersofpollution thatlurkunderground

PipesThenightsiren amplifythe nightsirensplayedthattowarnthecity

Thetragedystreets fromRecreatingthechaos thatnight

The frames of the victims are hung above giving a view of the factory through a shallow stream of water, signifying absolution from the structure that once maimed them.

History is the certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

The casting of the concrete involves bamboo formwork that is used to create grooves in the structure and used as hooks for the photo frames

The prefabricated memorial structure is cast in concrete and burnt. The burnt concrete texture signifies the charred lungs of the victims

The functions would be instruments that engender their own evolution guided by time and process and hence the design would materialize in phases. The memorial design, while being the conclusion of one process is envisioned as a catalyst and evolving point for the other functions over time.

Top: Section showing the factory preserved as an artifact and the prefabricated memorial space in burnt concrete undeneath

The built morphology of the museum structures speaks to bare bones and highlights the structural formwork as an expression of the grim mood of the site The buried pipes surrounding the factory signify the official death toll of 3000 whereas the greater proprotion underneath represents the countless deaths that were unaccounted for

Looking Beyond : The Tragedy of the Commons & Catharsis

Designing a system that imparts skill, with the vision of changing the citizens’ identities from victims to artists and activists, thereby catalysing their empowerment. The state has floated public design competitions and offered 250Cr INR as initial funding for proposals as a means of their absolution.

In light of the prevailing deteriorating conditions and the ongoing fight for justice, it is, now more than ever, pertinent to involve the citizens and stakeholders as active participants in the

Incremental Museum designed to display and accomodate the growing artefacts of the struggle for justice Auditorium

300 pax to hold plays and informational events

Skill center

Souvenir Shop sells local hand-made memorabilia to visitors

RevenueStream

Imparts essential life skills and technical skills to impoverished victims at no cost

Public Library

Displays and sells testimonies of victims and information about the tragedy to build public support

Offices for Non profits

Work on private and state funding to provide legal and medical services to the victims