Manufactured Memory: An Inquiry into the attitudes towards Re-using Industrial Buildings
Advait Patel UI 0111 Guide: Canna Patel
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Chapter 1-Re-Use of Industry
1.1 Architecture for Industry III
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Introduction
Table of Contents Acknowledgments
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Introduction... Thesis Structure Abstract Introduction Aim Objectives Literature Review Methodology Hypothesis
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Chapter 1-Re-Use and Industry...
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1.1 Architecture for Industry 1.2 Re-use
Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation...
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2.0 Attitudes in Design 2.1 Concept v/s Concept 2.2 Elemental Responses 2.3 Attitude:
The Manifestation of a Concept Through Elemental Responses
Chapter 3 - Case Studies...
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3.0 Scenario of reuse in Bombay 3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 3.2 Cafe Zoe 3.3 Social
Chapter 4 - Observations and Outcomes...
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4.0 Conservation through Re-use 4.1 Comparative Analysis 4.2 Manufactures Memory 4.3 Academic Attitudes 4.4 Attitudes towards Memory Bibliography... Web Sources List of Figures List of Illustrations
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Introduction
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Introduction
Acknowledgments My heartiest thanks to Canna Ma’am for her guidance, enthusiasm and curiosity during the course of this study, which made it fun for me.
My thanks to Snehal Ma’am, Kireet Sir and Krishna Ma’am, for their constant support through these five years and for teaching me patience, rigor and critical thinking.
A Special thanks to Shubhra Raje, Zameer Basrai, Faizan Khatri and Arthur Duff for very insightful discussions on the topic at various stages.For without these discussions the thesis would have not been possible.
My Sincerest thanks to Shailja for memory wouldn’t have been manufactured if the factory was not rethought.
My thanks to Kaveesha as this thesis began in one of our conversations.
Thanks to Monik, Divya and Parth for helping me during my thesis crunch.
Finally thanks to the friends i have made over these past five years - Seniors, Juniors, Faculties, fellow council members, .
And thanks mom and dad, for all your support and patience.
Introduction
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Introduction
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An Inquiry into the Attitudes towards the Reuse of Industrial Buildings
E T P A H
1.2 Re-use
A discussion on The advent of the industrial revolution, its impact on architecture and society. Creation of Industrial Architecture, and its subsequent need of reuse. Current situation of Mills in Bombay.
Discussion on how the new program is imposed on the existing buildings. The social , Economic and political aspects contributing towards the programmatic response towards re-use
Attitudes in Adaptation Defining the idea of an “attitude� by understanding and expanding theories as established in the literature review.
2.1 Attitudes in Design 2.2 Concept v/s Concept 2.3Elemental Responses 2.4 Attitude: Manifestation
Based on the derived understanding, checking for a response towards memory within the reuse projects done in the city of Bombay.
CHAPTER-3
of a concept through elemental responses
CHAPTER-4
C H A P T E R - 2
Manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., With regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind
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attitude: a position assumed for a specific purpose
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1.1Architecture for industry
Observations and Outcomes 4.0 Conservation through Re-use 4.1 Comparative Analysis 4.2 Manufactured Memory 4.3 Academic Attitudes 4.4 Attitudes towards memory
Case Studies 3.0 Scenario of re-using industrial buildings in Bombay
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 3.2 Cafe Zoe 3.3 Social
Based on the derived understanding, checking for a response towards memory within the reuse projects done in the city of Bombay.
Introduction
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2
Introduction
Abstract The re-use of industrial buildings is a social, political and economic reality of our time. However within a re-use project one has to interact with memory while catering to the needs of the new function. This thesis derives the attitude that designers adopt to address memory through their concepts in re-use projects. We derive the attitude by analyzing the condition of re-use through concepts from theory as well as practice. Many mills are getting re-used within the city of Bombay. We test these theories on three projects in lower Parel to understand the various attitudes that have been adopted by designers to address industrial buildings in Bombay.
Introduction
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Introduction: The mid 18th Century brought about the movement of industrialization, which majorly impacted Europe. It allowed a country to transform their agrarian economy to that of an industrial one. This Shift brought about a shift in the nature of the city and the field of architecture. Factories and sheds dedicated to production and manufacturing started housing various industries. Hence a new typology of buildings got woven into the urban fabric. These buildings took upon new criteria such as huge spans and optimum light conditions, to house their function. But with passing time and the changing city the activity of production was pushed out of the city. And these buildings dedicated to production became devoid of life. By the 1970’s we see that industrial buildings that have outlived their need start getting re-purposed for various other uses across various industrial hubs around the globe. Industrial architecture as a typology always came up with spaces that had to allow major movement and had to house production at a very large scale. Because of this most sheds would have an open plan configuration and large volumes. Largely with a change in function many of these conditions are retained to house the new use and at the same time a few of these conditions are reworked to get an optimum result out of the space. With change in function the building has to be modified or altered to a certain extent. The change of function directly changes the nature of inhabitation in space therefore majorly changing the interior of the space. Every time a project like this is undertaken the building is not only going through a physical change but a dialogue in time as layers of the building are being stripped off and new elements are added to the building. Bombay is one of the few cities in our country where many such factories and sheds have been engulfed in the urban growth and sit in patches amidst a vast range of buildings. After the 1982 Bombay Mill Workers Strike most mills shut down and the textile industry of the city took a blow. During this time many land laws were changed to accommodate housing within industrial zones. Overtime industrial zones were also sanctioned for commercial use. Because of this most mill compounds are getting cleared to create new vertical housing and commercial schemes. Amidst all this rapid development some go through Adaptive re-use where a new function is imposed on the building. Thus in a fabric where demolition of such industrial buildings is the major developer response, what happens to the surviving industrial buildings?? Many of these buildings, which are not demolished, undergo adaptive reuse. This adaptation is majorly done to transform a defunct property into a revenue-generating avenue. These buildings offer interesting spaces as a canvas to work with for interior designers as well a sense of memory, which the designer may or may not address. Therefore an attitude has to be adopted which would address the various stages of complexity within the project from the basic address of the new program, the physical entities of the building and the embodied memory within the building.
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Introduction
Aim: To understand the design attitudes adopted by designers, in projects where industrial buildings are re-used.
Objectives: Adaptive Re-use of industrial buildings is a phenomenon that is globally occurring everyday as we have saturated many of our cities with built mass. Therefore the objectives of this study are: • To understand the setting and background of industrial buildings. Discussing how the typology of industrial architecture reached up to the point of reuse and the programmatic response in the scenario of adaptive reuse • To define the development of an attitude and how this attitude manifests vies a vies tangible design decisions. • Understanding the attitude adopted by designers in such projects in Bombay. With a major mass of this building demolished within the city, how do designers engage with the memory while adding catering to the needs of the new function at hand. • Understanding the nature of alterations and addition of elements in relation to the existing.
Literature review: The subject of Adaptive Re-Use is extremely important in the current scenario, especially for countries like India. With the rapid uncontrolled construction of buildings most cities end up with multiple typologies of buildings which eventually making neighborhoods with communal identities and weave the larger urban fabric. The aspect of reusing buildings is a very important factor for economy, urbanization and sustainability. Many times the idea of reusing buildings has been challenged by many architects and academicians alike. However some advocate these buildings to be re-purposed and reused. Jane Jacobs in her book advocates the necessity of preserving buildings within a city as in her opinion it just makes the city culturally rich with different buildings from different era’s symbolizing different time periods of a city. This argument is further advocated by Cedric Price who not advocates the act of re-use but also offers six strategies to work with existing structure: Reduction, Addition, Insertion, Connection, Demolition and Expansion. Both of these authors advocate re-use with the idea of preserving the cultural identity however the author Benjamin Fragner attributes reuse of industrial buildings to be a social, political and economic reality of our time.
Introduction
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Therefore the first step in re-use is understanding the basic history and background of the type of buildings addressed and the new function that is imposed on the building for re-use. This debate is followed by the idea of conservation and how it interacts with the idea of adaptive reuse in response to the actual building. The thesis Adaptive Re-use :Indian Scenario categorizes industrial buildings as secondclass historic buildings where there is no greatly significant architectural quality, which distinguishes the architecture from marvels like forts and palaces at the same time have a cultural and social value when talking about embodied memory of the industrial revolution. Most theses done on the subject debate over the idea of distinguishing conservation and adaptive re-use. However developments since then in the context of Bombay indicate that the mills at that are not being repurposed for conservation purposes but for various commercial activities. When talking about industrial buildings and the new program introduced for re-use we understand that: The new function is quite different from the original function hence the larger volume of the factory buildings are most of the time subdivided to house the new function. In most of the cases new interior spaces are created within the large space of the built form for the new function. Depending on the new functions the new designer has to be almost create new architecture within existing architecture. So the designer as to address two entities in the project the building and its embodied memory Bernard Tschumi discusses a similar set of relationships in his book event cities 3 Context vs Concept vs Content. He establishes the idea of a concept or an overarching diagram which governs and gives coherence to the design. He defines and illustrates three relationships of indifference, reciprocity and conflict between the concept, context and the content. These three entities fit perfectly at the situation at hand in projects of reuse of industrial buildings where the concept: design, context: industrial buildings and the content: new program. Similarly author Greame Brooker and sally stone illustrate three responsive strategies of intervention, insertion and installation, which can be considered as tangible responses. By taking these two theories into account; the first to understand the theoretical premise of the attitude and the second to understand the degree of physical actions employed in order to manifest the design, we get the development of an attitude. Therefore we may further have to understand these theories in relationship to each other while confining ourselves in the premise of reuse of industrial buildings to understand the development of an attitude.
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Introduction
Methodology: We begin by discussing the industrial revolution and its subsequent effects on architecture and the creation of industrial architectural we further go on to understand the factors that urge the building for reuse and the new program that is imposed. We further elaborate upon the theories of indifference, reciprocity and conflict as a response to the salient features of the building and the practice of responsive interiors to develop the larger framework of the attitude adopted by the designer to tackle the project brief and site. Finally looking at multiple case studies for a comparative analysis in Bombay with a similar site, context and program addressed by different designers to understand whether there is a similarity in conceptual and physical design decisions. The underlying question being of how the design attitude translates the idea of memory into the design. Deriving a conclusion based on the comparative analysis critiquing the translation and interpretation of memory done while facilitating the new function.
Scope and Limitations: “Theory is the practice of concepts, and practice is the theory of concepts.� The thesis will be going back and forth between theoretical positions and their resonance in practice this can be attributed to the idea of how both theory and practice influence and work with each other. This thesis will limit its case studies to vicinity in Bombay to get similar contextual conditions. The selection of the case studies will also be based on similarity of program so as to compare design approaches. The study will be focusing on the final state of the interior space in relation to the new design created for the intended research.
Hypothesis: In the city of Bombay most of the mills are being demolished for vertical housing. The remainders of which become commercial properties are subjected to an alien use. However designers address the building in such a way that the embodied memory is celebrated. The new design therefore creating a memory value which would otherwise not be there.
Introduction
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Chapter 1
Re-use Of Industry 1.1 Architecture for Industry
1.11 The Industrial Revolution 1.12 Industrial revolution and Change 1.13 Impact on Architecture 1.14 Meanwhile in Bombay
1.2 Re-Use : Programmatic responces towards Industrial Buildings 1.21 Public Scale 1.22 Residential Regeneration 1.23 Private Redevelopements 1.24 Program as a response to context
f:1.1 The four ages of the indutrial Revolution
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Chapter 1-Re-Use of Industry
1.1 Architecture for Industry Architecture is the physical embodiment of culture of a particular time and place. It combines scientific understanding, mathematical precision and the aesthetics of beauty in the practice of making spaces for inhabitation through the construction of buildings and other built environments. The industrial Revolution had various impacts on the human society. Major economical, social and cultural impacts were witnessed globally. It had a significant impact on architecture. Architecture purely serving industry was created for the first time. Industrial Architecture was born. This style of architecture would eventually influence architecture in a wider sense with a larger intent of achieving efficiency in the functioning and construction of buildings. Cities changed drastically with the age of industrialization. Large industrial fabrics were added to the city with the growing economy. This created various undesirable living conditions like noise and air pollution throughout the city. Thus the activity of production was eventually pushed out the fabric. Many Buildings living up to this legacy survive in fragments throughout Europe. Some of these, undergo adaptive reuse as a measure to conserve and make the best use of the building. These buildings are embodied with a rich industrial heritage upon which modern society is built. A small fraction of the heritage of the parallel of the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th century that developed within the Indian subcontinent now lays engulfed within the surviving mills of Bombay. It is essential to understand the past and the factors that have led to the realities of today. So we understand the industrial revolution to understand why where and how industrial buildings came about. Then we understand how the revolution impacts the city and architecture. And finally we understand the situation of the surviving defunct industrial buildings.
1.1 Architecture for Industry 11
1.11 The Industrial Revolution From a world history perspective, the industrial revolution was a turning point for the world in which various factors caused a change in various aspects operating the way of life. It is not a time bound event but a continuous phenomenon that has been influencing our society ever since. The industrial revolution transformed the way we think and live forever. The industrial revolution was increase in production brought about by the use of machines characterized by the use of new energy sources. It originated in Britain between the 18th and 19th century. The industrial revolution caused major changes in agriculture, manufacturing and mining, transportation, technology and our focus here architecture. So how did the industrial revolution affect architecture?? The quest for neoclassical aesthetics turned into a search for an architecture that made use of the new industrial processes and materials. Rather than beautifully made buildings with the intent to impress, buildings were granted by the new technologies and materials, especially iron and steel. In the place of the quest to develop impressive buildings the exploration was targeted towards building and developing efficient spaces that could be efficiently and economically be replicated on a larger scale. With the advancement of the industrial revolution, architecture and construction became more affordable. This was especially owed to the ability of prefabricating architectural elements and building materials. Many people in the middle class were now able to afford architecturally designed home and architecture was now able to accommodate the growing urban populations. In 1800 the total amount of iron produced was 825,000 tons. One century later in 1900, with industrial revolution in full swing global production rose to 40 million tones almost 50 times as much as in 1800.
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Chapter 1-Re-Use of Industry
Most of the things produced before the industrial revolution, were produced using hand tools. During the age of enlightenment various machines were invented that enabled us to replace hand-tools with mechanized tools. Initially these machines were powered using running water, steam and wind. Eventually with the invention and spread of electricity all of these machines became electrically powered. The same happens in the case with factories and other industrial architecture Machines that could replace hand tools to increase efficiency in production were applied to mass production of goods. The first industry to face this transformation was the textile industry. Machines like the spinning jenny, the mechanized loom and the water frame were amongst the first machines used in production of textiles. Buildings had to be designed to house these machines in large numbers to be operated by workers and also offer other storage and other service based spaces. These buildings were called mills. Many other types of buildings started emerging, which were purely dedicated to the mass production of entitles. To increase production a huge number of machines were operated at the same time. The machines plus the flow of workers and materials urged architects to come up with buildings with larger spans and higher volumes. Along with physical space machines would also produce a lot of noise thus making a larger volume essential to dissipate sound. All the spaces had to be natural lit and ventilated. All of these requirements had to be met within a tight budget. Such requirements urged architects to come up with a new language for buildings to house this activity. Largely all industrial architecture was built on these principles. But it were the larger social and technological impacts of the movement that defined a new language for architecture at a global scale.
1.1 Architecture for Industry 13
1.12 Industrial revolution and Change Industries were small scale and were richly woven within communities. These Cottage industries were heavily dependent on immediate context. Post the industrial revolution this setting of the industry changed. Factories created thousands of jobs thus people quit their work from their communal rural setting and migrated to cities. Because of this phenomenon people for the first time had to go out from their homes and domestic setting into a complete work setting. Thus factories with their shifts and their timetables were the first modern work places for the larger mass. This phenomenon created a new class in society, which was the working class. The working class became the majority population in urban areas with more and more added every year. With factories in place cities started changing. Cities grew in the 18th and 19th century . Large industrial fabrics crept into major cities of the world. Along with these larger housing systems, urban transport systems, waste management and electrical power distribution systems had to be integrated within the infrastructure of cities to support the economy and society developed by the industries housed in these created fabrics. These changes eventually led to the modern cities. Factories symbolized the environments and the experiences that went on to define the hardships and the struggles of the working class. They also became symobolised the larger idea of mass production and the capitalist ideology.
f:1.2 A cottage industry showing the setting for manufacturing and production of goods befor the industrial revolution
f:1.3The factory: a new setting for mass production and manufacturing post the industrial revolution.
Architecture changed as a response to the changing economic and social situations .At this point in history we see two things taking shape a new typology of architecture purely devoted to industry is created and architecture itself is developed as an industry.
f:1.4 The factory depicted as a metaphor for the education system by the band pink floyd in their 1970 rock musical “the wall�.
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Chapter 1-Re-Use of Industry
1.13 Impact on Architecture All and most of architecture was being done using bricks, stone and wood up to the 19th century. From the early 18th century onwards water mills and other factories were already being constructed using these materials. One major drawback of these was that the weight of a multistory building had to be supported principally by the strength of its walls. The taller the building, the more strain this placed on the lower sections. Since there were clear engineering limits to the weight such load-bearing walls could sustain, large designs meant massively thick walls on the ground floors, and definite limits on the building’s height. Forged iron and milled steel began to replace wood, brick and stone as primary materials for large buildings.
f:1.5 the Eiffel tower which s a wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Constructed from 1887–89 as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair, it was initially criticized by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. It has come to one of the key buildings which represent the larger implications that the advent of steel brought to architecture.(1)
These materials created a new language for factories with engineered trusses creating larger spans for the factory floor. This shift in construction technology is encapsulated in the Eiffel Tower built in 1889. The Eiffel Tower not only became an icon for France but for industry itself – heralding a new age in materials, design and construction methods. This approach was further developed and nurtured in the United States. By assembling a framework of steel girders, architects and builders could suddenly create tall, slender buildings with a strong steel skeleton. The rest of the building’s elements — the walls, floors, ceilings, and windows were suspended from the load-bearing steel. This new way of constructing buildings, so-called “columnframe” construction, pushed them up rather than out. Building design in major urban centers now placed a premium on vertical space. Like the flying buttress of the 14th century, the steel weight-bearing frame allowed not just for taller buildings, but much larger windows, which meant more daylight reaching interior spaces. Interior walls became thinner creating more usable floor space.
(1) Web Source - Wikipedia
1.1 Architecture for Industry 15
In America, the development of cheap, versatile steel in the second half of the 19th century helped change the urban landscape. The country was in the midst of rapid social and economic growth that made for great opportunities in architectural design. A much more urbanized society was getting developed and the society called out for new, larger buildings. By the middle of the 19th century downtown areas in big cities began to transform themselves with new roads and buildings to accommodate the growth. The mass production of steel was the main driving force behind the ability to build skyscrapers during the mid 1880s. Steel framing was set into foundations of reinforced concrete, concrete poured around a grid of steel rods (re-bar) or other matrices to increase tensile strength in foundations, columns and vertical slabs. This technology would affect construction from all scales - infrastructural to domestic.
f:1.6 New York in the 1950’s
Because steel framing had no precedent, its use would rewrite the rules of design and engineering of large buildings and along with them a new formal aesthetic. Thus, a new language had to be developed for all the vertical architecture that was to be created. With all of these shifts in construction and technolgy. There was a parallel social shift By this time the industrial work districts which fueled the jobs of the middle class were being replaced by white collar jobs which were housed in these new vertical work districts of major cities. Because of all of these factors began to dissolve and started within the growing urban fabrics. surrounding factories become a within the city.
industrial fabrics getting engulfed With a change in distinct typology
f:1.7 Chicago in the 1950’s
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Chapter 1-Re-Use of Industry
The modern cities today consist of various buildings that have layered the city over time. Industrial Architecture starting from the 1850’s has had huge impacts in the larger creation of urban life. Large pieces of urban infrastructure to smaller sheds and factories were created as a result of the industrial revolution. Industrial clusters were created in and around cities globally and eventual the boosting economy of the city would render these same clusters defunct. Globally we observe that the growing city would eventually grow around engulfing these districts and neighbourhoods. The industrial districts started disappearing from cities around the 1950’s. With production as a an activity pushed out of the city the factories that housed these activities lost their function. Suddenly cities had huge portions of defunct built mass present within the city. These buildings are subjects to real estate situations, policies of use and most of all ownership. These basic situations determine the larger fate of the industrial buildings that lay dormant in the city.
1.1 Architecture for Industry 17
1.14 Meanwhile in Bombay In the 1850’s Bombay was one of the key trade ports of the British empire established in India. The city was transforming itself into a major industrial hub. Warehouses, Factories and mills started developing within the city. This was the time when the textile industry was getting established within the larger city. “Chawls” came about within the city to respond to the housing needs of the mill workers. The cotton boom of the mid- 1860s which began with the American Civil War in 1861, stimulated further enterprise and by 1865, 10 textile mills employing over 6500 mill workers had been established by industrial magnates who had switched their activity from trading to industry. By 1880, 42 spinning and weaving mills were set up, increasing to 68 in 1885, 94 in 1890, 102 in 1895,and an astonishing 136 by 1900. The textile industry, which was offered many incentives in terms of long leases extending to 999 years, not only shaped the economic history of the city, but even more importantly, boosted economic growth and employment, as also the volume of trade through the port.(2) The textile industry in India was established by urban traders in Mumbai and Ahmedabad who had access to cheap electricity, possessed their own funds, and had pioneered a unique system of labour contractors to ensure a steady flow of workers from rural areas. The textile mill industry reaped economies of scale by integrating processes such as weaving and spinning, and rose to become one of the world’s largest by the turn of the 19th century.(3) The mill district was the powerhouse that largely fueled the growth of the city. This growth went on until the 1950’s when the gradual decline of the textile industry commenced. There was a great technological shift that was impacting the textile industry as even more efficient machines could replace workers.
(2) Dwivedi, Sharada. Past Time: Layers of History and Culture .(3) Shailja Patel - Rethinking Factory: A study of design opportunities and constraints an Adaptive Re-use of mills in Mumbai
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Chapter 1-Re-Use of Industry
Mill owners diverted their profits to start other industries instead of using them back into the textile industry, so there was no modernization of the mills. Reservation policies and adverse taxation discouraged the mill owners from investing more in the industry. Hence, by 1980’s it became uneconomical to maintain large scale industrial units within the city limits on account of high power and tax costs.(4) In order to close the mills and force workers to accept voluntary retirement, mill owners regularly stopped workers’ wages for months on end, starving them into submission. They did not pay other dues so workers were compelled to agree to unjust settlements. Such injustice, led to one of the biggest strike in world history by the mill workers. The 18 month long textile strike under the leadership of Dutta Samant in 1982-83 became the ultimate reason of the decline. The mill district had become a ghost town.(5) So at the end of it we get a huge portion of industrial buildings trapped right in the middle of the city. Along with that we have a group of really dissatisfied mill workers, their unions and their union leaders and a thriving economy around the city. The closure of the textile mills in the late 1980s and 90s coincided with the Central government’s shift towards liberalizing the economy. With technological changes and economic restrictions; many of the mills were declared ‘sick’ and it was hard for mill owners to pay thousands of workers unless they were allowed to sell their assets. There are 58 cotton textile mills in Mumbai. Of these, 26 were deemed ‘sick’ and, therefore, taken over by the Government of India. The remaining 32 mills continued in the private sector.(6) It wasn’t until the 1990s when these mills were addressed for re-use which came about with a huge political and policy changes.(Chapter 3, 3.0 reuse of mills in Bombay). The mills and other industrial buildings that lay in the city are the remnants of the larger industrial economy that thwarted progress in Bombay.
(3) (5) (6) Shailja Patel - Rethinking Factory: A study of design opportunities and constraints an Adaptive Re-use of mills in Mumbai
1.1 Architecture for Industry 19
A building has at least two lives - the one imagined by its maker and the life it lives afterward - and they are never the same. - Rem Koolhaas
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Chapter 1- Re-Use of Industry
reuse(7)
1.2 Re-Use :
verb:reuse; 3rd person present: reuses; past tense: reused; past participle: reused; gerund or present participle: reusing; verb: re-use; 3rd person present: re-uses; past tense: re-used; past participle: re-used; gerund or present participle: re-using
All Buildings, Once handed over by the builders to the client, have three possible fates, namely to remain unchanged, to be attended or to be demolished.(8)
1.use again or more than once. eg: “the tape could be magnetically erased and reused” noun:reuse; noun: re-use 1.the action of using something again. eg:“the ballast was cleaned ready for reuse”
All buildings that are constructed are created with a specific function in its place. But we see that many times structure outlives the function and a building is left defunct. In a case where a building is being demolished the land is being re-used or re-purposed. But demolition over Conservation is a choice. In any case Re-use is a reoccurring phenomenon. The same happens in the case with factories and other industrial architecture. The theme of different uses for or conservations of buildings and complexes left abandoned or no longer suitable for their original functions only emerged once it had grown into an inescapable economic, cultural and to an extent even a political problem.(9) Economy, Culture and Politics are three entities that influence the fate of industrial buildings. All of these factors affect projects at different scales and stages and maybe relevant during stages of re-use of a building. It all begins at a political or at a policy level where the governing laws of the context promote or demote the idea of adaptive re-use. However this political decision usually has an economic equation governing the situation. Similarly in case of industrial fabrics the issue of re-use largely depends upon the basic jurisdiction of the given properties. This factor firstly works at a policy level where local real estate situations, public or private ownership and construction permits dictate upon the larger fate of these defunct buildings. However, Adaptive re-use is a popular trend which emerged in the 1960’s and 1970’s throughout the west as a response to environmental concerns and economic realities.(10)
(10) Fragner, Benjamin Vestiges of industry : architectural conversion of industrial heritage in the Cech Republic. (11) Sophie Francesca Cantell The Adaptive Reuse of Historic Industrial Buildings: Regulation Barriers, Best Practices and Case Studies
1.2 Re-Use 21
Globally in the past 40 years various industrial buildings have been reused by housing a diversity of new Programs. Adaptive reuse should be the preferred strategy for an industrial when no other industrial option is available. And should always be favored over demolition and redevelopment. There are countless reuse options available for industrial buildings. Some of the more popular conversions are of industrial building to museums, art studios, live-work units, offices, residential units, schools, retail, and increasingly more are combining several uses together. Indeed, it has been a growing trend in the United States for the last forty years.(12) Given the simplicity of industrial buildings and open plan volumetric configurations a diversity of programmatic responses have been developed for such industrial fabrics. We see that the practice of re-use of industrial buildings has become a global reality in both the public and private sectors. The idea of preserving industrial fabrics also has a cultural connotation to it. Preserving these industrial icons is an important part of maintaining the historic industrial character of a community. Changes in industrial practices have changed so dramatically in the last century that different regions have been prominent at different times and presently few regions dominate anymore as industry has shifted globally.(13) Large Scale projects initiate this process but smaller scale projects add on to this aspect. 1.21 Public Scale Many large cities would face the problem of large public infrastructure becoming obsolete and defunct. Local governments have to address this problem. When it comes to industrial buildings governments have started advocating thier re-use given their good state and huge scale. Museum conversion was one of the first responses developed.
(12) (13) Sophie Francesca Cantell The Adaptive Reuse of Historic Industrial Buildings: Regulation Barriers, Best Practices and Case Studies
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Chapter 1- Re-Use of Industry
Gare de Orsay
f:1.8 Gare’d orsay Railway Station in the 1920’s
The Gare’ de Orsay in Paris was a railway station built between 1898 and 1900. By 1939 the station’s short platforms were not best usable for the longer trains that had come to be used. Therefore the building had become defunct. It was used as a set for motion pictures and had other temporary functions. A proposal to demolish the station to make room for a new hotel was rejected. In 1977 the French government decided to make it a museum. Musee’d orsay was opened in 1986 and it exhibits mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography.(14)
Tate Modern
f:1.9 Bankside Power Station from the thames
The Tate Modern in London has become a benchmark project when it comes to re-using industrial architecture. Tate Modern is housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station, and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963. It is directly across the river from St Paul’s Cathedral. The power station closed in 1981.By 1991 it was due for demolition to make room for new development. But demolition was refused by the authorities and in 1994 Tate gallery decided to house Tate modern in this building. The project was one of the bench mark cultural projects where the industrial character of the building was retained in the new design. the building went through a thorough alterations at an interior level in the initial re-development. Because of the success and large popularity of the project the building complex was further developed with new extensions expanding the museum into new wings.(15)
(14) Gare’d Orsay - Web Source -Wikipedia (15) Tate Modern -Web Source- Wikipedia
1.2 Re-Use 23
1.3 Residential Regeneration. Given the Sheer scale of some industrial buildings, and the immediate need of the surrounding many projects from both the private and public realm have taken to converting some industrial buildings to housing schemes. With such projects the industrial fabric within the city is conserved preserving a certain memory and character of the place. Gearwheel Factory Conservation An industrial building which was completely engulfed within a residential neighborhood. Thus, value has been recognized in the old building for residential purpose. However one singular building is fragmented into 12 lofts. (17)
f:1.10 Gearwheel Factory
Gasometer City The Gasometers in Vienna are four former gas tanks, each of 90,000 m³ storage capacity, built as part of the Vienna municipal gas works Gaswerk Simmering in 1896–1899. They are located in the 11th district, Simmering. They were used from 1899 to 1984 as gas storage tanks. After the changeover from town gas to natural gas between 1969 and 1978, they were no longer used and were shut down. In 1978, they were designated as protected historic landmarks. Vienna undertook a remodeling and revitalization of the protected monuments and in 1995 called for ideas for the new use of the structures. The Selected designs were completed between 1999 and 2001. Each gasometer was divided into several zones for living (apartments in the top), working (offices in the middle floors) and entertainment and shopping malls in the ground floors). The shopping mall levels in each gasometer are connected to the others by sky-bridges. The historic exterior wall was conserved.(18) f:1.11 Gasometer city Vienna
(19) Gearwheel Factory Reconversion -Web Source -Archdaily (20) Gasometer City - Web Source
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1.4 Private Redevelopements. Learning from larger public developments globally private developers have started looking at dilapidated and defunct industrial buildings as potential redevelopment properties. With this commercial aspect in place we see various programmatic responses developed for this scenario.
Camperdown Childcare
f:1.12 Camper down Childcare
In the heart of Sydney, camperdown childcare is a program that is inserted into an industrial shed. The neighborhood of this projects sits amongst a diverse development of residential commercial and functioning industrial units. The project is viable because of close proximity of the residential blocks and the urge of preserving the industrial character of the neighborhood. The project was completed in 2014 and is functioning since.(19)
The Mill
f:1.13 The Mill
Located on the outskirts of the Scottish borders in the United Kingdom. The mill was a dilapidated barn which was part of the agrarian industry of the surrounding towns. The building was shut once nearby farms stopped harvesting. The owners decided to convert this building into a weekend get away home which could be rented as per need. Though there is no development in context as such the building is reused in accordance to what the context best offers: Scenic views, privacy and seclusion. Ideal for what a get-away home would require. The projecd was completed in 2014 and is functioning since.(20)
Brothers Brewery
f:1.14 Brother Brewery
(19) Camperdown Childcare - Web source - Archdaily (20) The Mill- Web Sources - Archdaily (21) Brothers Brewery -Web Source -Archdaily
A 1960’s warehouse was addressed for reuse located in auckland, new zealand. the proposal was to covert it into a craft brewery, restaurant, commercial kitchen and bar with a north facing courtyard and covered outdoor dining area. Here a collabrative arhcitect-client effort was put forward to navigate through the beaureaucratic, design and construction phase of the project. It was comleted in 2015 and is functioning since.(21)
1.2 Re-Use 25
1.24 Program : Direct response to context In the scenario of reusing industrial buildings it comes an evident fact that the idea of reuse imposes a set of new functions to the building and to an extent even the larger setting of these buildings. The new programs have to be housed in perfectly in order to reactivate the building. At the same time it is an important cultural necessity to preserve the character of the architecture being reused. When factory architecture is saved, it is the result of a belief of its potential to be transformed or for its rich architectural fabric. The anonymous lives of the thousands of workers who were subjected to harsh working conditions in the factory are seldom recognized. Therefore, asking the question ‘what has this building been?’ In addition to ‘what could this building become?’ Will result in a conversion that does not hide the building’s past. A successful adaptive reuse project can bring redevelopment, heritage tourism, and new life into a community.(22) Industries of various scales are being re-used and each scale demands a very specific approach. We see these responses through out the globe. With a range of situations through-out the globe. The new program selected for re-use is the outcome of the direct need of the context. Architectural conversion cannot be understood simplistically. Its motifs are changeable, the decisions taken are deeply affected by the purpose and the context of the time; general reflections often hide sharply contradictory meaning(23) “The Context maybe Historical, (24) geographical,cultural,political or economic. Therefore, any industrial building offering a possibility for re-use is introduced to the new program which is contextually viable to reactivate the building.
(22) ,(23) Fragner, Benjamin Vestiges of industry : architectural conversion of industrial heritage in the Cech Republic.,(24) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content
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THE DYNAMICS OF RE-USING BUILDINGS NEW PROGRAM FOR RE-USE RE-USE OF BUILDING
ACTIVE BUILDING
CHANGE IN CONTEXT
DEFUNCT BUILDING
DEMOLITION
Classical life of the building Regeneration cycle of the building
At this point these factors of selection of the new program is more of a developers exercise than that of a designer. However varying from project to project, designers may be consulted at an early stage with the developers both public and private. Therefore, one can see the re-use of industrial buildings occurring in various contexts is a reality. Thus, there is a necessary to understand the basic relationship between the context and the program. As shown in the above diagram we can understand that change in context of the building is the key reason that an industrial building is left defunct. In an adaptive Re-Use Project of an industrial building the proposed design has to address the building as a context in terms of its history and significance while responding to the larger context which is manifested in the new program proposed for reuse.
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Chapter 2
Attitudes in Adaptation 2.0 Attitudes in Design 2.1 Concept v/s Concept
2.11Context 2.12 Content 2.13 Concept 2.14 The interrelationship between the context, content and concept 2.15 Indifference 2.16 Reciprocity 2.17 Conflict
2.2 Elemental Responses 2.21 Interventions 2.22 Additions 2.23 Inhabitants
2.3 Attitude- The Manifestation of a concept through Elemental Responses
Adaptation: The process of transforming an existing building to accommodate new uses.(1)
Re-Use: The transformation of an existing building, ‘re-use’ suggests that the elements and parts of both new and old building are reworked in order to create a new space. (2)
Adaptive Reuse: is the process of wholeheartedly altering the building. In this approach new elements are added and the existing building may be altered to get the desired dimensions and qualities in the new space.(3)
(1),(2),(3): Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in interior architecture
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design(4) verb de·sign \di-zīn\ : to plan and make decisions about (something that is being built or created) : to create the plans, drawings, etc., that show how (something) will be made : to plan and make (something) for a specific use or purpose interior(5) adjective in·te·ri·or \in-tir-ē-ər\ : located on the inside of something : suited for use in the inside or on inside surfaces attitude(6) noun at·ti·tude \a-tə-tüd, -tyüd\ : a position assumed for a specific purpose : a mental position with regard to a fact or state : a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state
2.0 Attitudes in Design An act of design is an act which is performed with a direct purpose. Unlike art, design has to address function. Therefore a certain attitude is adopted towards an entity that the design caters too. This entity may be the manner of the functioning, users. In a larger time scale the assumed attitude may have larger social and cultural implications. The most significant difference between the design of interiors and the design of almost anything else is the existence of the original building.(7) The idea of space is independent but the idea of an interior would definitely be in relation to an exterior. The boundaries between this exterior and interior may be blurred but the idea on an interior space would depend on the notion of it being bound within something. Therefore when interior design decisions are executed a design position is established with the architectural components creating the interior space. Over the course of an adaptive reuse project multiple design decisions need to be taken in respect to the building and catering to the program. An attitude would be to understand these various design decisions taken consciously by the designer in relation to intangible and tangible aspects of the building subject to re-use. Attitude in Research (Attitudinal Survey) An attitudinal survey is research method used in the fields of business and psychology. An attitudinal survey can be defined as an assessment of the feelings of a population toward a particular brand, product, or company. Attitude surveys can be useful for identifying latent markets, determining what demographics a company should focus on to maintain or improve sales, and measuring the market effect of announcements or events.(8) This thesis aims to be an attitudinal survey aiming to to inform us about the attitudes that designers adopt towards the idea of memory that the buildings possess. In the process i understood how this method may be an applicable research method in design. However it might have to be further defined as a research method within the theory and practice of design. `
(4),(5),(6): Merriam Webster Dictionary (7) Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in interior architecture (8) Web Source - Business Directory
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2.1 Concept v/s Concept: When we talk about the practice of space making as an architectural act we see that at the inception of every design is a program and a site. The site comes with a context which as discussed in the above section, has to be addressed with equal importance as the function for which it is being built. Therefore a relationship is created between the site and the program through the construction of the building. A similar situation comes at hand during the course of re-use of buildings. The new-design has to cater to the new function while it interacts with the site. Therefore the building becomes the context for redesign. With the building as site and the program in its place the designer has the key to the project. The designer has to play different roles during the span of the project where one interprets history, manifests the present and projects the future vis a vis the redesign. This trait has been exploited by various practitioners at an academic and at a professional level where this complex relationship between the site, the new program and the design approach to get global acknowledgment. As established in the previous chapter, industrial fabrics have a strong embodied memory and character which is conserved when such buildings are re-used. Thus it is equally important to address this issue when one talks about altering the building or adding elements to the building to address the re-use. Therefore the building has to be responded to as the context for the interior.
Bernard Tschumi (b: 25th January 1944) is an architect, writer, and educator, commonly associated with deconstructivism. Son of the well-known architect Jean Tschumi, born of French and Swiss parentage, he works and lives in New York City and Paris. He studied in Paris and at ETH in Zurich, where he received his degree in architecture in 1969.Tschumi has taught at the Architectural Association in London, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, Princeton University, the Cooper Union in New York and Columbia University where he was Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation from 1988 to 2003. Tschumi is a permanent US resident.(10)
In one such theory Bernard Tschumi argues that : Concepts, contexts and content, these notions are simultaneously separate and interdependent.(9)
(9) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content (10) wikipedia
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f:2.1 Bernard Tschumi in 2000
There is no architecture without a concept- An overarching idea , diagram or parti’ that gives coherence and identity to the building.(12)
Event-Cities 3: Concept vs. Context vs. Content Bernard Tschumi 2005 MIT Press ISBN 0262701103 Through documentation of recent projects—including the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, a campus athletic center in Cincinnati, museums in Sao Paolo, New York, and Antwerp, concert halls in France, and a speculative urban project in Beijing—Tschumi examines different ways that concept, context, and content relate to each other in his work.(11)
f:2.2 Event Cities 3-Cover page
In a situation where a building is being re-used a concept exists within the physicality of the building. The concept that responded to the context of time in which it was built and the program that was the need of the time.(Chapter 1) In the case of re-use a new concept is imposed to the building. Inherently design decisions undertaken by the designer interact with the concept of the building. Therefore a condition of Concept vs Concept is created whereas both the concepts interact. Both catering to relative contexts and contents altered in the fourth dimension- Time.(13) Therefore to understand this further in our context of re-use of industrial buildings we must understand what these three entities would be for the the interior designer that has to tackle this condition. We look at the three entities in the equation: context, content and concept.
2.11 Context A work of architecture is always in situ, or “in situation” located on a site and within a setting.(14) Among the flawed assumption that underlay the contextualist movement of the 1980’s and the 1990’s were, first that a building’s relationship to its environment should be conceived primarily in visual tiers, and second that the affiliation should be one of similarity. (15) The same notion follows in the case of interiors of buildings as the interior is usually a component of the overall design and identity of the building itself. On the contrary, architecture is connected to its context in multiple ways and indifference, reciprocity and conflict are all valid relationships between the building and its environment.(16) Similarly interior concepts can also establish these relationships within the building between the existing elements and the new ones. A building interior is naturally tied to its context. The site offers a series of unique conditions that are specific to that position only. These circumstances include the relationship with neighboring spaces or buildings, the particular climatic conditions, the vista, view or orientation and factors such as history and previous function.(17) (11) google books (12) (14) (15) (16) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content (13) Giedion, Siegfried, Space, time and architecture: the growth of a new tradition (17) Brooker, Graeme and Sally Stone ,Context + environment in Interior Architecture
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
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The building that is to be remodeled is also part of its own context. The quality of the individual spaces, the relationship of one room with another and of each floor with the one below or above, the positions of doors, the windows and the circulation areas all contribute to the intricate composition of the existing building.(18) The building in its existence becomes a prime manifestation of the context for the interior designer that addresses the shell. Other concerns of the context such as climate, environment and economy may become an integral part of the context when it comes to re-using buildings.
2.12 Content There is no architectural space without something that happens in it, no space without content.(19) All spaces are built for one or the other purpose. Similarly during the course of re-use, existing spaces having lost their function, are re purposed for other functions. These new functions get imposed on the existing building. But the manner of this imposition if where the designer comes in. An architectural program is a list of required utilities, it indicates their relations, but suggests neither their combination nor their proportion. Any given program (by a client, by an institution, by custom) can be analyzed, dismantled, deconstructed, according to any rule or criteria and then be reconstructed into another programmatic configuration (while retaining its initial programmatic variables.(20) These new functions get imposed on the existing building. But the manner of this imposition is defined by the designer. Since the space is defined by the site the designer has to translate and work with the program and configure it within the given site. Therefore a thorough translation of the program would be required to retrofit it within the space given.
(18) (11) Brooker, Graeme and Sally Stone ,Context + environment in Interior Arcitecture (19) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content (20) Tschumi, Bernard, Architecture and disjunction.
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2.13 Concept The interior concept has to cater to the programmatic variables that are essential for the building to function. However the designer may address these needs through unconventional spatial translations generated from the interior concept. So the concept in this equation is the prime aspect that the designer has to come up with as the context and the content are a given reality. Architecture is the built realization of a particular concept or idea. This idea can be about construction, or the way people will use a building, or how the building fits into a physical or social landscape. Every building has concepts including warehouses and factories.(21) With that argument we can say the interior concept that is imposed on the building would work at various levels ranging from altering the architecture to infiltrating the space with furniture and other objects. The larger concept has to work with the architectural concept that governs the shell while addressing the interior to its complete detail. As compared to an architectural concept which is embodied within a building, the interior concept is manifest not only within its physicality but also gets extended to furniture, objects and services lighting and hvac which enter the building. The interior concept varying from program to program may extend or restrict itself in decisions that go on to dictate the manner of inhabitation that happens in the space.
(21) Jacobson, Clare Ed ,Slow manifesto : lebbeus woods blog
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
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2.15 Interrelationship between the concept, context and content This relationships get established primarily between concept and context and subsequently concept and content inadvertently deriving the concept vs context vs content relationship. Tschumi further argues that content can qualify or disqualify concepts and contexts can be qualified or disqualified by concepts. Bernard Tschumi exemplifies these concepts with his own projects while defining generic notions between these three entities of concept , context and content. These relationships are exemplified at a larger architectural scale where the contexts drastically change. However in the case of re-using industrial buildings, we can expect a certain generality on the issue of typology of building and the contrasting nature of programs that inhabit them. Thus a similar context for projects with varying content. However as the success of a large number of such projects would suggest that the concept is the key factor in balancing equation between context (the industrial building) and the content (the diverse nature of programs introduced during re-use). A set of calculative design decisions have been presented by Bernard Tschumi undertaken in his projects to exemplify these relationships. I have analyzed projects with similar design attributes, as laid by Tschumi to exemplify these three conditions of indifference, reciprocity and conflict at the scale of interior architecture where industrial buildings were re-used. I have tried to translate my understanding of these projects into a photographic drawing which tries to illustrates the built design in its physical sense and also highlights the relation that gets manifested in the design.
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THE DYNAMICS OF THE GOVERNING CONCEPT, CONTEXT AND CONTENT IN RELATION TO TIME.
Larger Architectural Concept applied at the inception of the building
Interior Concept interacting with the architectural concept during reuse
The original content which becomes obsolete therefore rendering the building defunct
CONTENT CONCEPT
the building becomes the context for the designer which is subject to re-use the setting of the building that changes and evolves as the time passes by.
The Industrial Building
CONTEXT CONCEPT Interior concept
Architectural concept
CONTEXT
CONTENT
Thriving cities create industrial buildings to cater to the huge industries created for the mass production of various commodities.
The new program inserted to reactivate the building becomes a response to the context of the time.
VOLUME MATERIALITY The volumes , materiality of the
LANGUAGE design and the language of the elements that may be stimuli for the new design catering to the adaptation.
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
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2.14 Indifference Indiffernce is whereby the idea (Concept) and its setting (Context) are superbly ignorant of one anothera kind of an accidental collage in which both coexist but do not interact.(22) Indifference is a resultant conceptual condition when no cue or guideline is taken from surrounding context. All architectural decisions and articulation are introverted defined by the needs of the activity or function.
f:2.3 Vacheron Constantine heaquarters plan and section.
This architectural relationship is exemplified by Tschumi by his projects with a basic relationship of the envelope to its surrounding whereas the envelope is a completely alien entity and has a more in to out relationship rather than the facade and scale responding to any surrounding stimulus. Vacheron Constantin Headquarters Geneva, Project Completion: 2005
f:2.4 Vacheron Constantine heaquarters ophysical model
f:2.5 Vacheron Constantine h eaquarters
This building serves as the manufacturing and administrative headquarters of Switzerland’s oldest watchmaking company. The concept for the project is based on the idea of a thin, flexible envelope. The envelope stands free from any contextual response. The envelope is meant to emphasize the relationship of the envelope to what happens inside rather than to conditions outside. The continuity of the monolithic metal cladding lends the building a visual and functional coherence and suggests a fluid relationship between management, design, and production in the company’s operations. (23) (22) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content (23) Vacheron Constantin Headquarters - Web Sourcetschumi.com
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The envelope is not responding to the architectural context, this exhibits indidfference. In an interior architectural context when spaces are created with elements alien to the elements making the enclosure,the situation of indifference is created. Many times this strategy is used to juxtapose environments within a building. Inner City Warehouse Sydney: 2015 A 1060 sqm two level inner city Sydney warehouse is converted into a private residence cleverly using yachting technology to create a private sleeping pod. The project is shortlisted for the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards, announced in October 2015. The most significant insertion in the warehouse is the sleeping pod or, cave, on the first floor. This is the owner’s private suite that sits as a piece of sculpture in the main living space, its internal volumes billowing between the roof trusses. The alien form to the orthogonal geometry of the old warehouse creates new spaces but does not diminish the sense of space in the warehouse.(24) Though the pod sits perfectly within the volume of the building, it is not interacting with it at a spatial level. Neither is a material cue taken from the context. The pod as a spatial device is completely introvert to the function of sleeping that it caters to. Therefore the larger insert of the pod exhibits a complete indifference to the enclosure within which it is created.
(24) Inner City Warehouse - Web Source- Archdaily
f:2.3 Inner City Warehouse plan and Section
f:2.7 Inner ciry Warehouse, Sleeping pod outer shell
f:2.8 Inner ciry Warehouse, Sleeping pod Interior
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I N D I F F E R E N C E
Ill.2.1.2 Vacheron Headquarters
Indifference is achieved when no relationship or reference can be derived from the context therefore generating the design purely through the content on the inside.
I have tried to translate my understanding of these projects into a photographic drawing which tries to illustrates the built design in its physical sense and also highlights the relation that gets manifested in the design.
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Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation
I N D I F F E R E N C E
Indifference is achieved when no relationship or reference can be derived from the context therefore generating the design purely through the content on the inside.
Ill.2.1.5 Inner City Warehouse
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
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2.15 Reciprocity Reciprocity might mean that the concept take material clues from the environment without mimicking it. Alternatively materials can be used to make a building stand out from its context, to enunciate an unnatural alien presence.(25)
f:2.9 Zenith Hall, Part Sectional detail
Reciprocity is also defined whereby the architectural concept and its context interact closely with one another in a complementary way so that they seem to merge seamlessly into a single continuous entity.(26)
Zenith hall Limogenes, France Project Completion: 2007
f:2.10 Zenith Hall, location and setting
f:2.11 Zenith Hall, exterior and interior.
Located in a wooded area on the outskirts of a small city in central France, the concert hall in Limoges can accommodate up to 8,000 spectators. The concept for the project began with a double envelope: an outer skin made of wood arcs and translucent rigid polycarbonate sheets and an inner acoustical envelope of locally grown Douglas fir trees.(27) This project exemplifies reciprocity by establishing a contextual relationship via a material decision. Though the form is extremely contemporary and does not imitate any vernacular style of the region. A bare austere use of the material for an exotic form responding to the activity housed inside an envelope suggests how the context qualifies the concept(material decision) with reciprocity and the same relation is established between concept (envelope) to content. Here the concept establishes a balance between all three entities therefore being an ideal example of reciprocity.
(25) (26) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content (27) Zenith Hall - Web Source - Tschumi.com
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Espai Baronda Spain Project Completion: 2009 Situated in Parc dels Torrents one of the best urban interventions in the city of Espluges, the “Espai Baronda” complex, has arisen from the recovery of a piece of authentic “architectural archaeology”; an old ceramics factory which fell into disuse more than two decades ago, in a city like Esplugues, with such a deep-rooted tradition in ceramics. Espai Baronda appears as a grand container for activities and spaces favouring the synergies of the companies involved in building (TAU-ICESA group), architecture (head office of Alonso, Balaguer Architects and Associates) and several Engineering companies, with multiple shared complementary services (restaurants, board rooms, an auditorium, parking, security services, etc.).(28) The project echoes reciprocity by generating a keen relationship through material translations. The original constituent material of the building- brick is used again to create the new envelope and extensions, while not mimicking the original style of construction. The contemporary translation of the brick facade creates a new character of space while still respecting the original building. With the internal fragmentation of the volume and the extensions responding to the geometries of the building,reciprocity is further exemplified.
(28) Espai Baronda - Web Source - Archdaily
f:2.12 Espai Baronda, plan
f:2.13 Espai Baronda, Perforated brick skin at night
f:2.14 Espai Baronda, Overall building complex
f:2.15 Espai Baronda, Interior corridor.
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R E C I P R O C I T Y
Ill.2.1.3 Zenith hall
Reciprocity is achieved through Translation of the contextual material in the designing of the building.
* drawn by author 44
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R E C I P R O C I T
Y
Ill.2.1.6 Espai Baronda
Reciprocity is achieved through Translation of the contextual material in the re-designing of the building and the interior.
* drawn by author
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
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2.16 Conflict Conflict, whereby the architectural concept is strategically made to clash with its context in a battle of opposites in which both protagonists may need to negotiate their own survival. Materials can be used to make a building stand out from its context, to enunciate an unnatural alien presence.(29)
Reid Building, Glasgow School of Art f:2.16 Reid Building old vs new section profile of the extension
f:2.17 Reid Building, Street view.
f:2.18 Reid Building, Weaving Workshop within the extension
Project :2014 The Seona Reid Building is in complementary contrast to Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s 1909 Glasgow School of Art – forging a symbiotic relation in which each structure heightens the integral qualities of the other. A thin translucent materiality in considered contrast to the masonry of the Mackintosh building – volumes of light which express the school’s activity in the urban fabric embodying a forward-looking life for the arts. Working simultaneously from the inside out - engaging the functional needs and psychological desires of the program-and the outside in-making connections to the city campus and relating to the Mackintosh building oppositethe design embodies the school’s aspirations in the city’s fabric.(30) Conflict between the surrounding and the core building is exemplified with the use of a new material. The form of the extension is derived based on a strong inside out relation with the extended program of the existing building. The interpretation of the relationship between the program of the art school and the existing building is retranslated in the new design of the extension. Therefore the content qualifies the concept of the envelope. (29) Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content (30) Seona Reid Building Web Source -stevenhollarchitects. com
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Factory Life, Kapellestraat 3, Belgium, Project :2012 A 860 sqm factory is converted in to a office/apartment mixed use program. Here the entire building is divided into three segments to house three specific sets of requirements: one which would be a fixed residence,second a permanent office and the third would be a workshop. This situation is addressed with the concept of interspace between these two shells is ‘covered outdoor’ space. (31)
The interspace allows/obliges inhabitants to use the space differently each season. While the house was under- construction this same interspace using moving partitions and units was used as a temporary residence. At the completion of the project we see a distinct new set of interior spaces built with a new set of materials. Engineered wood, and glass sit contrasting to the brick shell. Along this process on understands how the new set of spaces conflict those in materiality with no trace of the old however “the interspace” qualifies the idea of a covered outdoor space which remains in a constant flux of function.
f:2.19 Factory Life, Plan and Section
f:2.20 Factory Life, Office Interior Insert
(31) Factory Life - Web Source -Archdaily - archdaily
f:2.21 Factory Life, Movable partitions in the interspace.
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Ill.2.1.4 Reid Building
Conflict is established through Juxtaposition in scale and materiality between the extension and the exisiting building
* drawn by author 48
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Ill.2.1.7 Factory Life
Conflict is established through Juxtaposition scale and materiality between the newly defined interior insert and the larger shell.
* drawn by author
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
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2.2 Elemental Responses To begin the process of adaptation one needs to understand the set of elements and the spatial qualities that the building offers to the designer to retrofit the given function imposed on the space. The function is the most obvious change, but other alterations may be made to the building itself such as the circulation route, the orientation. Additions and extensions may be constructed, while other areas may be demolished.(32) We establish that the existing building can be regarded as a guidebook containing much of the information necessary to provide the necessary impetus for the re-design.(33) Industrial buildings offer a unique set of elements that the Designer has to respond too. In the previous section it was already established that industrial sheds offer various possibilities because of its open volumes and large spans.(Chapter 1). this configuration of spaces is what constitutes of the interior character of the industrial building. It is essential that this characteristic of the building is conserved in the new design to keep the identity of the building alive. Every conversion of an industrial building makes sense If traces of the original atmosphere remain continually present in the final result(34). The new design that is executed at some level alters the existing condition. Therefore any design position executed is a direct response to the site.
Preservation: maintains the building in the found state. In this approach no elements are added or subtracted and is nothing is altered.(36) Restoration: It is the process of returning the condition of the building to its original state. All elements that would have dilapidated are restored and material are also refinished however no new elements are added.(37) Renovation: It is the practice of renewing and updating the building. In this case the building is altered but the degree of alteration does not largely change the configuration of elements but merely upgrades it.(38) Adaptive Reuse: is the process of wholeheartedly altering the building. In this approach new elements are added and the existing building may be altered to get the desired dimensions and qualities in the new space.(39)
The new elements that are introduced are the obvious additions that are done to accommodate the program. Thus when we purely look at the building as a defunct structure there are a number of different methods used in the conservation of a structure and there are distinct differences between each approach. The approaches being: Preservation, Restoration, Renovation, Adaptive Re-use. Greame Brooker and Sally Stone in their book argue that.... The interior designer has to be forever conscious of the continual presence of an existing structure. But far from this being a handicap or constrain factor, it can be used as a valuable tool, an instrument of liberation in the process of creating interior space, the stimulus for transformation can often be found in the existing building.(35) (32) Scott, Fred On altering architecture (36)(37) (35): Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in interior architecture
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(36)(37)(38)(39): Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in interior architecture
These “responses� or responsive interiors have been classified into three strategies.
Basics Interior Architecture 01: Form and Structure examines the basic ideas that underpin the design and remodeling of interior space. It covers the process from the establishment of a relationship between the existing building and the new components that inhabit it, to the design and positioning of significant elements within the space. The book proposes a method of analysis, understanding and exploitation of the existing building that can be used to realise the design of a new insertion. Studies of contemporary work, alongside activities and resources are displayed in an engaging and stimulating way that appeals to students as well as practitioners.
Each of these responses differ from each other in the manner and degree of alteration that they impose on the new building. The three Responses are: Intervened Interiors will thoroughly alter the existing building.(40) Inserted interiors will make use of the placement of an independent object, the nature of which is governed by the original building.(41) Installed interiors will house an arrangement of a series of elements within a space that are closely related to it but will not alter it.(42) These responses are employed by designers to address various aspects of the projects. The program would lay a basic premise that would guide the designer to employ one of these responses to achieve the desired alteration in space. A project would employ these three strategies in varying degrees depending upon the need of the new function that needs to housed. During the redesigning of the new interior these responses are what would define the desired new spatial relationship required for the function. These responses also inevitably create the dialogue in space and time as new elements interact with the existing site. Therefore, these responses can be reclassified as Interventions, additions and inhabitants. Understanding these responses we understand how the concept generates these elemental responses and their implications on the building. There may be a varying nature on implications on the building changing from design to design.
f:2.22 Form+Structure
(40) Web Source - Bloomsbury.com (41)(42)(43): Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in interior architecture
2.2 Elemental Responces 51
2.21 Interventions in the existing. The existing shell given to the designer as the site has a set of space defining elements. In the case of any building an intervention can alter or change the existing building irrevocably so that the new and the old no longer exist independently. Therefore an intervention is directly altering an existing element of the building becoming permanent addition to the building.
Ill.2.1.8 The Bare Shell
An intervention is a response that will use the qualities of the building to inform the design of the new elements.(44)The work of intervention is therefore based on analysis, of thought that must be both intelligent and intuitive.(45) Interventions are created when the architect reveals the qualities of the existing building and translates these into the new design. This uncovering of the qualities of the original is achieved many times by extensive demolition and construction.
Ill.2.1.9 Intervention at roof
Intervention as a response has a direct implication on the existing building. It’s manifestation creates a very close relationship with the existing as interventions where demolition and new construction of exiting elements is executed it is usually irreversible creating a permanent trace. Interventions do not create new spaces at an interior scale but are done to address issues like services, daylighting,etc.
Ill.2.1.10 Intervention in enclosure
Industrial buildings leave a scope for intervention at the scale of the envelope where the structure usually is not altered but is either juxtaposed with a new entity or the structure is revealed and expressed. The Roof , Floor Level and the walls comprising of the envelope are the key architectural elements that get altered permanently.
(44) Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in interior architecture (45) Scott, Fred On altering architecture
-Interventions 52
-Additions
Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation
Ill.2.1.11 Intervention ground plane -Inhabitants
in
the
Automobile Design Studio Design Firm:SJK Architect Location:Bombay, India Year of Completion:2015 The roof is renovated and the skylights are incorporated in th new roof. Howevrer no structural changes are made and the existing structure of the factory is used.(46)
Ill.2.1.12 Intervention at roof
Old Rigot Mill Design Firm: Coldefy & AssociĂŠs Architectes Location :Dunkerque, France Year of Completion:2014 Three windows are created by puncturing the walls of the original building. This change is carried out keeping the structural limitations of the building. Such an intervention would change the interior spatially the daylighting conditions would change and a new inside outside relationship is created.(47) Ill.2.1.13 Intervention at roof
Blue Frog Acoustoic Lounge Design Firm: Serie Architects Location: Bombay, India Year of Completioon: 2012 The floor is raised in order to create various levels. Such an intervention alters the plinth level of the building therefore recreating one of the key datum elements of the existing building.(48)
Ill.2.1.14 Intervention at roof
(46): Automobile Design Studio Web Source- Archdaily (47) Old Rigot Mill Web Source- Archdaily (48) Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge Web Source- Archdaily
2.2 Elemental Responces 53
2.22 Additions through Inserts and Extentions During the re-use of a building various additions are done to accommodate the function. Inserts are additions that are done in the building to facilitate a new set of spaces that are created within a builiding to better utilize the derived volume. Inserts establish a very close relationship netween the exisitng builiding and the new interior. The insert is asingle striking element that is inserted in to the existing space. The distinct component may contain a number of different functional and servicing activities that can easily be separated from the main activity of the building. The new element is built to an exact fit of the exisitng building(54) Inserts would be a direct response to the overall shell that the building offers. Based on the available dimensions and structural feasibility new materials are inserted to create a new set of spaces. In the process the new space created would eleminate a portion of the original volume. Therefore inserts create a larger sense of dialogue with the old and new volumes in conversation. Interior inserts may be in contact with the shell with the floor, roof and/or the walls. The degree of contact with the exisitng shell determines how much of the original volume is comsumed by the new space created. Also the threshold between the new interior space and the old volume would be determined by how independent or parasitic the new addition is .
Ill.2.1.15 Horizontal breaking the volume
Additions
Ill.2.1.16 Vertical Partitions
Ill.2.1.17 Circulation additions
Inserts would create new spaces within the space by fragmenting the volume therfore changing the existing configuration of volumes and creating a new heirarchy of spaces.
Ill.2.1.18 Multiple employed
-Interventions 54
-Additions
Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation
-Inhabitants
additions
Virgen del Carmen Bar Design Firm: Estudio Arn Arquitectos Location:Santa Pola, Spain Year of Completion:2015 The mezzanine is added with a minimum structure in the space. As a new floor is created new vertical circulation is enabled by the staircase that is added with the mezzanine. The mezanine is an architectural addition within the space changing the volume and the spatial configuration within the space. (49)
Ill.2.1.19 Addtion: Horizontal PLane, Mezzanine Floor
3DS Culinary Design Firm: Oyler Wu Collaborative Location: Los Angeles, USA Year of Completion:2015 A very elaborate staircase is added within the space to enable a vertical circulation within the space.(50)
Ill.2.1.20 Addition: Staircase
Circulation
Bankara Store Design Firm: Studio210 Architects Location: Saitama-shi, Japan Year of Completion:2014 Vertical partitions are added within the larger space to as per the new design.(51)
Ill.2.1.21 Partitions
Addition:
Vertical
(49): Web Source- Virgen del Carmen Bar (50) Web Source3DS Culinary (51) Web Source - Bankara Store
2.2 Elemental Responces 55
2.23 Inhabitation through Installations, objects and furniture. With a change in function the nature of activities within a building change. With a new set of activities a new set of objects begin to inhabit the space which were previously alien to the space. Therefore, with a change in inhabitants there is an alteration in the space in its manner of life but there is no physical alteration as such. This form of an approach allows the existing buildings and the elements of redesign to exist independently. The old influences the design of the new, the arrangement and placement of the installed elements are dictated by the form of the existing but do not alter the structure or size of the original space. The activity of production had a need to house huge machines. Similarly the new activities that need to be housed have a similar need of objects and items that would aid the new activity. Apart from basic services, basic objects from a range of furniture to other service based products invade the space thus creating a new imprint in space. These objects merely flow in and out of the space, without altering it any other physical level. However, they create a relationship with the existing and can be used by the designer in a very strategic way to subtly blend in the space or starkly stand out.
Ill.2.1.22 Inhabitants: Services, Lights, HVAC, plumbing, etc
Ill.2.1.23 Inhabitants: Furniture
Ill.2.1.24 Inhabitants programmatic objects
:
Varying from project to project the degree of encroachment vis a vis these “installations� would vary in its nature and longevity. Inhabitants would be divided into Services, Furniture and programmatic objects.
Ill.2.1.24 Inhabitants : Diverse use.
-Interventions 56
-Additions
Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation
-Inhabitants
Brothers Brewery Design Firm:MA Architects Location:Auckland , New Zealand Year of Completion:2015 Here objects adhering to a very specific attribute of the program inhabit the space. in this case brewing machines inhabit the space and also become active spatial elements within the space. These along with serving the primary function also add a certain layer of aesthetic to the space and actively become a part of the experience. (52)
f:2.24 Brother Brewery, Interior
Hughes Warehouse Design Firm:Overland Partners Location:San Antonio, USA Year of Completion:2012 Working cubicles completely equipped with all desk work equipment like computers and stationery fills up the entire space. These inhabiting furniture pieces are a strict response to the programmatic need and would be relevant only until the program would demand it to. (53)
f:2.23 Hughes Warehouse, Interior
The Factory Design Firm: Pepe Gascรณn Location:Barcelona, Spain Year of Completion:2015 Except for the minmum addition of basic lighting the space is unaltered in any way The service is installed in an exposed manner without any other layers being added to the existing shell. (54)
(52): Web Source- Brothers Brewery (53) Web Source-Hughes Warehouse (54) Web Source - The Factory
f:2.22 The Factory, Interior
2.2 Elemental Responces 57
Combined responses
Application
of
all
The three responses of Intervention, Addition and inhabitation have to be simultaneously employed during the course of a project at varying scales and degrees. Each of these is a specific response undertaken by the designer with tangible physical decisions which create a relationship with the old. Each response is towards a specific entity of the existing building. An Intervention is a direct response towards the building which would address specific elements of the building with an irreversible alteration. The old and new coexist and are interdependent.
Ill.2.1.25 Intervention inhabitation
and
Ill.2.1.26 inhabitation
and
An addition would add something to the existing building. The new and old would exist distinctly and independently but the building would be altered in the process and the new would be derived out of the old. Inhabitation as a response would allow objects to invade and inhabit the space without any form of physical alteration done to the building. The old and new are completely independent from one another and influence each other only by their mere presence.
Addition
In the process of adaptation each project would have either one or all of these responses employed to cater to the new needs of the function. These responses would be employed at various scales and degrees. The coherence of each of these responses in their nature would lead to the creating of the larger attitude that the designer would employ.
Ill.2.1.27 Intervention, Addition and inhabitants
-Interventions 58
-Additions
Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation
-Inhabitants
Ill.2.1.28 Addition and inhabitants
Ill.2.1.31 Intevention Inhabitants
Ill.2.1.29 addition
and
Ill.2.1.32 Intervention, Addition and inhabitants
Ill.2.1.30 Intervention, Addition and inhabitants
Ill.2.1.33 Intervention, Addition and inhabitants
Intervention
-Interventions
-Additions
and
-Inhabitants
2.2 Elemental Responces 59
2.3 Attitude: The Manifestation of a Concept Through Elemental Responses The larger manifestation of the design, can be broken down as responses towards the existing building. However all of these responses adhere to a concept that is either derived from the building or from the program. The new concept that is imposed on the building has to negotiate with the building and cater to the new program. All responses inherently become a part of this negotiation. The varying degree of responses taken with a concept governing these gives us the attitude taken up by the designer. A response to the building is created when the smallest entity or element of the building is added or subtracted to the larger physical realm bound by the built mass at hand. The new concept imposed upon the existing building creates a condition where the new and the old concepts governing the spaces interact to manifest a new set of relationships. This concept would be addressing the three entities of volume, materiality and language. These responses are the outcome of tangible design decisions but their impact creates the larger experience defining a certain attitude towards the concept governing the larger shell of the space. This larger concept also is manifested within the physical responses towards the building being: Interventions, additions and inhabitants. These responses are the physical architectural decisions where the design is responding to the building. Both these lines of questioning are distinct in nature with their impacts and implications. On questioning the design in both these realms of conceptual translation and actual physical responses we can understand the larger attitude adopted to tackle the context(the building addressed for re-use and its subsequent qualities) and the content ( the programmatic response towards reactivating the building having its own needs and requirements).
60
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Ill.3.1.27 - Camperdown Childcare The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants
Camper Down Childcare.() The roof has an intervention of skylights, which bring light into the space. New classroom spaces have been created within the industrial shed with additions of both horizontal and vertical partitions encompassing a new mass within the space. Finally to complete the childcare center we observe objects such as planters, toys and a layer of carpet enter the space. .
-Interventions
-Additions
-Inhabitants
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
61
Ill.3.1.27 - SunPower Corporation Offices- The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
The sun-power corporation spaces which are housed in a fragment of the ford factory in California . we observe a renovation of the skylights. Smaller offices are created within the larger volume using horizontal and vertical thresholds to close and define spaces. While the larger volume is invaded by air-conditioning ducts and furniture. .
-Interventions 62
-Additions
Chapter 2 - Attitudes in Adaptation
-Inhabitants
THE DERIVATION OF THE ATTITUDE
CONTEXT
CONTENT
RESPONCE
The new program, response in the current development in the surrounding neighborhood.
The industrial building, the neighborhood condition of the site,
TO BUILDING
VOLUME
INTERVENTION
Experience, form and memory preserved within the embodied architecture.
Alterations in the shell,- at roof, walls (enclosure) and plinth level.
LANGUAGE
Expressions, design language,aesthetics of the new design in response to the existing.
CONCEPT
ADDITION Additions done to the space which add to the architecture of the space
MATERIALITY
INHABITANTS
Relationships of the existing shell and the new additions to the shell vis a vis their building materials and finishes.
ATTITUDE
Services, Furniture and programmatic spaces which define the interior but do not touch or leave a footprint on the existing shell.
Checking the conceptual and physical responses towards the building, we understand the impositions of the program and various relationships that manifest with the existing.
2.1 Concept v/s Concept
63
Chapter 3
Case Studies
3.0 Scenario of Re-using Industrial buildings in Bombay 3.01 Selection of Case Studies
3.02 Note on representation of analysis
3.1 Blue Frog 3.2 Cafe Zoe 3.3 Social
“ Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them. By old buildings I mean not museum-piece old buildings, not old buildings in an excellent and expensive state of rehabilitation—although these make fine ingredients—but also a good lot of plain, ordinary, lowvalue old buildings,including some rundown old buildings.” -Jane Jacobs
The Life and Death of great American Cities
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3.0 The Scenario of re-using industrial buildings in Bombay. Post the decline of mills in the late eights, the first step towards redeveloping the mills started with the liberalization of the economy, post 1991. The newly adopted economic policies allowed the change of user from “industrial� to commercial/residential� on condition that they used the resultant funds for relevant revival of the mills.(1) In 1991, in the changed context of the liberalization of the economy and due to the pressure of the Central government and the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), the Maharashtra Government introduced Regulation 58 in the DCR, which allowed the development of mill lands, but only for the revival or modernization of the mills after approval of the BIFR. Regulation 58 of the new Development Control Regulations, which came into force in March 1991 provides development of lands of sick and/or closed Cotton Textile mills on conditions that: (a) One-Third of the land is given to the BMC for public open spaces. (b) 27%-37% (depending on the area of the site) is given to MHADA and PSUs for housing. (c) The remaining land could then be developed by the owner for residential or commercial uses as may be permissible under D.C. Regulations in force.(2)
The DCR was established to regulate the redevelopment in a manner that the communal and neighborhood urban value is preserved. Also the directly impacted community of mill workers are given due relevance in their development.
(1) Adarkar, Neera, The Lost Century of Workers, (2) Mills For Sale: The Way Ahead, Mumbai.
3,0 Scenario of reusing industrial Buildings in Bombay 67
However this did not work out and the government recognized the need for integrated planning required by Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MR&TP) Act for the development of this large area where the mills are all situated, so as to avoid piecemeal action. It appointed the Study Group, who suggested measures to improve transport and connectivity, and public and open spaces. The report of the group was submitted in 1996, but no action was taken on its recommendations, and it has never been made public. In 2000, the state government appointed another committee under Minister of Textiles, to revise the mill land sale policy and to look upon mill workers and owners. This committee submitted its report in 2001. (3) In March 2001, under section 37 of the MR&TP Act the government amended DCR 58. Besides modifying the original regulation, this changed the very basis for calculating the land to be surrendered for open space and housing. Instead of considering the entire open land and land after demolition of structures for calculating the area to be surrendered as in the original regulation, it substituted the words “open lands and balance FSI” and dropped the words “lands under the structures”. This reduced the area to be surrendered.(4) Post late 2000 we see a condition within the Bombay real estate when most of the mill lands as per the new regulation are implemented for developing huge high end residential towers. This was the major time when unchecked hazardousness development happened within the mill district making it lose it prior urban communal value. As a response to this in 2005, BEAG and other NGO workers files petition against the amendment in High Court. Mills owners appeals to the Supreme Court which lifts the stay and upholds the validity of DC Amendment. In 2006, INTACH files case in the High Court to protect heritage structures in the mills. Court orders listing and stays further demolition of mills.(5)
(3) (5) Shailja Patel - Rethinking Factory: A study of design opportunities and constraints an Adaptive Re-use of mills in Mumbai (4) Correa, Charles, Recycling Urban Land, Mills For Sale: The Way Ahead, Mumbai
68
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f:3.1 Fluctuation in ownership post 2001 amedment causing a llop hole in the policy framwork leading to demolition of a lot of industrial buildings to make wake for vertical housing schemes.
At this point of time there are various industrial sheds trapped amidst the gleaming residential and corporate towers rising in and around Parel. As a result large number of sheds start getting addressed for re-use as these are defunct properties sitting in the middle of prime real estate. Various programs are inserted within the constraints of it being for “commercial use� as permitted by the laws. (6) Within the commercial nature of use we see a wide range of programmatic responses for reuse of these sheds. These responses are not advocated from the larger concern of preserving an industrial identity. Also a lack of policy on defining the specific nature of commercial activity makes the programmatic responses, directly respond to the immediate need of the surrounding context. Thus various responses ranging from offices to restaurants are employed within these sheds. Various industrial sheds as they are engulfed within the center of the thriving city, become ideal for office use. We see various responses like private offices for the company owning the shed in projects like: Mahindra and Mahindra automobile design studio and the f:3.2 Hrd Rock Cafe, Lower Parel. Asian age office. Also co-working spaces like Awfis is created within a shed. Restaurants is another popular response which is employed to reactivate these buildings. The hard rock cafe was one of the first prominent conversions in 2008. Following Hard Rock, the success of other cafe like the Blue Frog, acoustic lounge , and the bar stock exchange, the cafe/bar response has become the most trending response over the past ten years. We see a huge number of similar venture coming up. Apart from these we see other programs like an art gallery and a lifestyle store also make their way into a f:3.3 Mahindra and Mahindra Automobile shed. These responses fall under commercial use but Design Studio , Lower Parel have a very different nature of program in terms in its function. However we see that like the global scene a diverse nature of programs can be imposed on the industrial buildings when subjecting to re-use. Unlike the global scene where larger protocols at policy level are employed to retain a certain communal character within the urban environment, the shed is firstly subjected to a larger utilitarian goal. (6) Shailja Patel - Rethinking Factory: A study of design opportunities and constraints an Adaptive Re-use of mills in Mumbai
3,0 Scenario of reusing industrial Buildings in Bombay 69
Blue Frog
Cafe Zoe
Social
Mathuradas Mill Compound
70
Chapter 3 Case Studies
Selection of case studies Lower Parel has seen a lot of re-use project where defunct industrial buildings are being re-used with various programmatic responses. As the area is very strategically trapped around large corporate and residential zones in the vicinity,the leisure ventures like bars and restaurants are in key demand. Since the commercial re-development of the phoenix mills compound the surrounding mill compounds have also been undergoing re-development. The shifting of the financial district, media and corporate offices, from south Mumbai snob perches to the suburbs has seen the action shift quite decisively to both Lower Parel/Worli and Bandra even in F&B retail. The Bandra burst and the creative use of erstwhile mills spaces in Lower Parel are both products of this phenomenon— even as Mumbai seems to have been refreshing itself much more than its fraying look, and pressured resources would otherwise suggest. It has been a transition in he while.(00) Therefore many sheds which are not undergoing any development are fragmented and leased out separately. These have become an ideal choice for restaurateurs to lease out . These lease are short term based as the rampart development has left these sheds in various patches and fragments retrofit with unchecked interventions which has diminished the larger industrial mill character. However within these We look at three examples from lower Parel around and within the Mathuradas mill compound. We analyze these finished functioning projects to understand the various attitudes adopted by designers responding to the site they are given. The site in all three cases are fragments of larger industrial sheds. We choose restaurant/bars that are addressed in this area as it is a successful programmatic response within the current context. We understand if memory is addressed within these projects as most of these buildings in the area have already been demolished not considered valuable for their memory value.
(7) - Web Source - Economic times
3,0 Scenario of reusing industrial Buildings in Bombay 71
Analysis through A photograph
Analysis through A photograph
72
Chapter 3 Case Studies
Note On Representation of the analysis. To analyze the final condition of the manifested concept we analyze the spaces using their documentation done in photographs. We can understand the extend of impact the design has in the overall experience when we see a photograph of the documented project. Similarly a drawing indicates the overall dimension and presents the space in the larger architectural annotation informing us about the circulation and other spatial features. Any analysis (deconstruction), of the material of architecture may be performed through its documentation rather than the material itself. As opposed to the plans, maps or axonometrics normaly used in architectural notation, the perspectival description of existing buildings is concomitant with their photographic record; the photograph can then act as the architectural image. The perspectival image is no longer a mode of three dimensional drawing, but the direct extension of modern photographic perception.(8) To analyze the final condition of the manifested concept i have analyses the spaces using their documentation done in photographs. We can understand the extend of material and language play that happens within these spaces by analyzing photographs, while drawings inform us of the architectural conditions that manifest this condition. Similarly we analyses (deconstruct) the design into responses of intervention, addition and inhabitation in both photographs and drawings. With these we understand the extent, impact and degree of encroachment of each response within the space.
(8) Tschumi, Bernard, The Manhattan Transcripts
3,0 Scenario of reusing industrial Buildings in Bombay 73
Blue Frog
Mathuradas Mill Compound
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge Design Firm: Serie Architects Location:Bombay, India Year of Completion:2015
Ill.3.1.1 Conceptual Exploded Isometric of blue frog acoustic lounge
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Chapter 3 Case Studies
Client: Blue Frog Media Pvt. Ltd Area: 1000 sq m Duration: October2006November 2007 Program: Performance hall, Recording studio, Restaurant and Bar The Blue Frog Acoustic lounge is a multi faceted program which works around three functions of a retro-bar, a multipurpose hall and a recording studio. All of these programs interact at a very intimate scale to function in the way they do. The design is generated purely from these parameters. The idea of a performance hall when combined with the idea of booth seating gives us a condition where the performance is enjoyed while a private domain is maintained. The design also contributes to a larger brand value that the enterprise carries and extends at its other locations. It has other venues in other cities like Pune Ill.3.1.2 Blue Frog Acoustic and Bangalore. Lounge
The bar is housed in a fragment of a larger mill building with a repetitive saw tooth roof. The design conceptually integrates multiple attributes of the original concept governing the space. The new concept remains strongly independent responding to the building but manifested an independent identity which s thrust upon the old. All reference images and base drawings are courtesy of serie architects.
Ill.3.1.3 Lounge
Blue
Frog
Acoustic
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 77
Volume The volume is sensitively addressed by keeping the double height free of any vertical breaks, and is further exaggerated by the creating of levels on the ground level. This alteration of the ground plane, is an intervention that leaves a very strong footprint.
Ill.3.1.4 The Juxtaposition of the two governing grids:the roof structure and the new booth grid.
The truss Structure of the roofing grid binds the shell. A new derived geometry of the seating creates the new secondary grid on the ground plane.(ill.3.1.4) Both the geometries are juxtaposed. This juxtaposition expresses both the old and the new simultaneously. Because no vertical breaks are employed the volume as memory is retained. This attribute is further exaggerated through the ground modulation. The seating booths create a sense of a smaller enclosure(ill.3.1.5). But their scale sits perfectly in balance with the larger volume created by the enclosure not interacting with one another in a physical sense but creating a variation in the perception and experience of the volume.
Ill.3.1.5 The new spaces created by the booths and stage versus the retained volume
Ill.3.1.6 the new divisions and spaces for the functional areas versus the central experential restaurant space 78
Chapter 3 Case Studies
The dance floor is the central focal point where centrally the volume exists in its totality. The other service spaces which have to fulfill larger functional aspects and have to be efficient are devised around this central volume where the volume is split down to a single height and the residual volume is dedicated to housing services.(Ill.3.1.6)
Ill.3.1.7 The new spaces interacting with the volume.
By spatially revealing the volume in its austerity while negotiating it over functional sections, the designer uses volume for its memory value in its experiential aspects. The larger open volume caters to the aspect of a concert hall while the new volumes carved out from the ground cater to activity of private dining and viewing. The modulation of the floor and the modulation of the booth heights are completely derived on the programmatic need and are just retrofit within the dimensional constraints of the building. Thus the design exhibits indifference volumetrically through its manifestation.
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 79
Materiality A new set of materials and finishes are imposed on the building. The existing walls are clad with swell panels to get the desired acoustic quality in the space. (Ill.3.1.9) The seating booths are finished Teak with the top undulating smooth surface covered with resin .The resin is back lit with various lighting options. The Truss and the roof structure along with the cast iron columns in the center which remain unaltered is further expressed here with bare exposed finishes.(Ill.3.1.8) Ill.3.1.8 the truss and roof are retain their materiality and finish . This materiality is further extended in the seating booths.
Ill.3.1.9 The internal walls of the space are clad with swell panels for acoustic purposes. Here the inherent materiality of shell is rejected.
The furniture for within the booths also echoes the materiality of the new and blends in with the new additions in the space. The material concept is largely programmed with the idea of night lighting and the aesthetic that it creates within the night environment. (Ill.3.1.10) The material concept works in three stages (ill.3.1.11) : the first of the roof structure exposed and bare resonating the old; second of the existing walls which are retain the form and the volume but are clad with swell panels which bring a new tactility at the enclosure level and third, the additions of the seating booths bring in a finished teak and acrylic-resin very contemporary options for the situation. The wood of the booth resonates the materiality of the trusses but the resin again conflicts it. The final manifestation is an eclectic juxtaposition of a diverse materials which exhibit both reciprocity and indifference with reference to the existing.
Ill.3.1.10 The seating booths have a wooden structure however its the back-light acrylic resis that gives life to the element in the night environment. 80
Chapter 3 Case Studies
The first stage of the exposed roof structure which is kept in its bare exposed finish.
The Second stage where the enclosure is changed at a tactile and visual scale by the cladding of swell panels on the wall’s of the existing structure.
The third stage of the booths where both the new encroachment is reflected in the acrylic resin and the wood of the trusses is reciprocated by the use in the booths
Ill.3.1.11 Stages of the material concept.
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 81
Language
Ill.3.1.12 The Restaurant and the kitchen. The kitchen is expessed by visually connecting it to the restaurant.
Ill.3.1.13 the layer of lights and projections that are imposed on the building. This layer is what alters the perception of the building the most.
The industrial identity of the building is condensed to the remaining structure that is revealed while all other design attributes resonate a complete contemporary identity. Major design attributes of the space come from a very specific programmatic parameter of the bar functioning post evening hours. Therefore the major alteration in the nature of functioning of the building takes place. The daylighting concept of the building has to be denied as a new lighting concept has to applied to the space. (lil.3.1.13) Finally looking at the layering of both the new and old concept governing the space, we see an interesting juxtaposition of one over the other. Therefore the additions of the seating booths express this aspect of alteration of this condition making it an active night space. This altered condition is also superimposed on the primary architectural element creating the daylighting, the north skylight. By using the north light as a projection screen the daylighting element also works in unison with the night light concept manifested within the new architecture housed within the shed. The booths and the open floor spatially divide the space for the different functions, directed towards the stage. The modulating form of the booths adhere to this concept and the same time revealing the volume. The service areas and functional areas are placed around the periphery to further advocate this.
Ill.3.1.14 The booths . They create a private domian while allowing a complete view of the perfoamance happening on stage. 82
Chapter 3 Case Studies
The language of space exhibits the perfect conflict through the juxtaposition of the old and new. The booths echo the materiality of the the trusses and the north skylight is imposed with digital projections echoing the play of light exhibit by the booths. The juxtaposition happens with no physical interaction and both these entities coexist one above the other. The resultant inhabitation in terms of activity is also complex with microenvironments and the seamless flow of the form is also translated in activity with one flowing into the other. Ill.3.1.15 The eccelectic juxtaposition of identities.
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 83
Interventions*
Ill.3.1.16 The Renovated roof and plinth
Ill.3.1.17 the new internal roof paneling and modulated plinth
Two major interventions are executed in the design.(Ill.3.1.16)The first at the roof level and the second on the ground plane. The roof is restored and renovated. The original structure is not altered in the process. The new restored roof finished with panels serving both a thermal and acoustic property.(ill.3.1.17) This intervention creates ideal spatial qualities for sound and air conditioning and does not alter dimension or any other spatial quality like daylighting. The other intervention is at the plinth level where the ground plane has been articulated to create various levels around a central dance floor around elevated stage. This sculpting of the ground follows the geometry of the new grid of the seating booths. (ill.3.1.18)The modulation of the height goes higher to lower as we go from the outer corridor to the inner central dance floor. Due to its flatness floor automatically provides a reference to all elements that come above or below it.(**) Multiple levels at 5 different heights are created therefore creating a very large footprint. This alters the ground line in an irreversible manner therefore adding a new datum to the basic enclosure that makes the space. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Interventions
Ill.3.1.18 the new modulated floor guides movement through levels and also uses the created levels as the basic datum for the seating booths.
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The floor being the major intervention with a large footprint. Parts of the building walls are redone again in adherence to the programmatic intrusion of services like toilets and other circulation necessities like plotting a new entry and also providing a service entries and
The additions work at two organizational levels: the first separating the active work zones through full height partitions accentuating the central volume, Second though the seating booths arranged in a horseshoe manner around the dance floor facing the stage. These additions are dependent of the envelope creating a conflicting identity through form.
Because of a stark layer of interventions and additions inhabitants at an experiential level are very disconnected from the building. However their presence has a very significant impact on the experiencing of the space.
Ill.3.1.19-Blue Frog- Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Plan -Interventions
-Additions
-Inhabitants
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 85
Additions*
Ill.3.1.20 Additions within the building.
A great set of additions are done to the space. Full height partitions are used to separate the more utilitarian spaces from the other experiential spaces. The seating booths which are wooden booths integrated with the floor. The booths are not separate modular units but a singular envelope form creating round table dining booths. The top surface of this envelope is a back light translucent surface made of resin. This allows for the necessary play of simulated light.(ill.3.1.21) The Partitioning walls of the kitchen dividing the kitchen from the restaurant area are full height from the floor to the roof. This binds the central volume further. The void created in the process is used for services. The seating booths follow the plinth further adhering to the new concept.
Ill.3.1.21 The booths within the central space
All additions are in strict adherence to the new concept. They create new spaces in the restaurant through the booths. The kitchen and office spaces are also newly created spaces in dimension and experience. This set of additions are separate in materiality and alien in form from the shell , therefore becoming a new layer within the building. This new layer creates an identity again conforming to the program and being time by its relevance. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Additions
Ill.3.1.22 The stage, Kitchen, Office spaces, toilet and reception area are all created and separated by vertical partitions.
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Additions
The intervention of creating levels recreates a major datum of the space. This makes a new reference for the additions and inhabitants to follow.
The additions bring in the contemporary design identity to the building. The new form can be experienced at a very intimate scale when transversing through it. However it s heights do not interact with the roof making. The retained volume out of this gesture creates the necessary balance for both the new and old elements to coexist.
Ill.3.1.23- Blue Frog -Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Section -Interventions
-Additions
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3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 87
Inhabitants* As all functioning spaces of the 21st century the program asks for a huge number of objects to enter the space to fulfill various tasks. The kitchen and the office space use modular furniture indifferent to the larger setting to meet the necessary functional parameters.
Ill.3.1.24 Inhabitants vary from utilitarium necessities of the kitchen to the experential necessities of the acoustic lounge. The lights and speakers dont dominate the space but their effect has great impact.
The Dance floor and the stage along with the central sound booth are spaces completely dedicated to objects of sound.(ill.3.1.24) Recording Equipment, Speakers, Various sets of stage lights and projectors for image projections warp the space with layers of flashing lights and sounds. This creates an environment within a building which was never meant for any of those functions. The kitchen, storage, and toilets add a new footprint on the space with a new layer of services (plumbing, electrical and air ducts) which gets embedded within the old.
Ill.3.1.25 Furniture is also a complete response to the utilitarian need completely conforming to the program therefore being time bound to it.
The inhabitants have a much deeper impact on the space than pure function. The inhabitants add the temporal layer of music and lights to the space which is an integral part of the experience and almost as important as the building itself. Therefore the inhabitants also manifest the programmatic intrusion in the most direct way where the sound and light which comes along with the program are embodied in the objects that create them for the ambiance. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Inhabitants
-Inhabitants 88
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Interventions
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The roof is a necessary intervention, whereas the modulation of the floor is is resultant of a strong concept generated out of the program.
The additions of the booths and the vertical partitions dividing the major restaurant area from the functional spaces also do not take cues from the building and again conform to the need and identity of the program.
The inhabitants complete the intrusion of the program into the building. The speakers and the lights bring in a new layer of experience to the space in forms of lights and sounds.
Ill.3.1.26- Blue Frog- Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Plan -Interventions
-Additions
-Inhabitants
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 89
Ill.3.1.27 - Blue Frog- The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
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Ill.3.1.28 - Blue Frog- The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
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Conceptual Translation
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Degree of Impact
Interaction in memory
The intervention brings about a change in one of the primary elements of the building, the enclosure. Therefore it manifests a new concept in the existing concept of the building. Therefore two juxtaposed concepts get manifested in the design.
The modulated floor is now a part of the existing enclosure becoming one with the larger building. This alters one of the primary datum references that binds the building without altering the architectural elements that make the shell.
The intervention done celebrates the idea of the volume as memory. It has a conflicting and contradictory approach complimenting the architecture of the space in its best outcome.
The additions are further extend the new concept. While they exhibit conflict in form, Reciprocity is expressed through material.
The additions further manifest the new design language. The intervention at the floor level guides the additions. The modulating heights and seamless surface bring in the flow and play of a three dimensional form.
The identity of the additions completely contradict the building but they at the same time reciprocate the materiality of the wooden trusses. Therefore a balance on the conflict is again established in this layer of design.
The inhabitants are a stark layer infiltrating the space however they impose their identity onto that of that of the existing identity of the building which is the
The inhabitants as furniture , services and objects of sound and light completely drive the life of the space almost activating the space by their mere presence
The imposed layer of music and light within the larger architectural volume creates an interesting condition where the architectural concept of the north light is re appropriated as a projector screen.
Chapter 3 Case Studies
Inference The complex functioning of the blue frog acoustic lounge occurs almost simultaneously . We can say easily that a person can conduct a conversation with a colleague , sipping beer, waiting for an ordered snack while listening to a live jazz performance which is getting recorded. The design creates a new language reflecting the contemporary spatial identity adopted by the brand. However the contextual identity of the mill is also not diminished in the process. A strategic response to the building restores the mill identity. Now the mill also becomes an additional brand factor to the specific franchise of the larger brand of bars . We see the intrusion of a very alien concept; derived out of a specific programmatic translation, within the exiting concept of the building. The concepts of the existing building are re-appropriated to the new concept. While the new design brings about a new language within the building it does not spatially intrude or clash with the architecture of the building. Here we see that the designer adopts an attitude to reciprocate with the existing building and at the same time conflict it. Thus the larger concepts reappropriates identities of the old and new and fuses them to become one. Memory of the building is translated through the volume and this memory is juxtaposed with a brand identity to create a space of spectacle.
3.1 Blue Frog Acoustic Lounge 93
Cafe Zoe
Mathuradas Mill Compound
3.2 Cafe Zoe
Design Firm: The Busride Studio Location:Bombay, India Year of Completion:2011
Ill.3.2.1 Cafe Zoe
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Client: Cafe Zoe Area: 1000 sqm Duration: October2006November 2007 Program: Restaurant, brasserie and bar Description: Cafe Zoe begins early with breakfast and goes on up to late nights for drinks. It does not put emphasis on any secondary function in the program but at the same time as a restaurant it caters to three diverse aspects of dining ranging from a bakery, to a cafe and a bar. All these manifest specifically as functional zones within the larger space of the restaurant. The cafe is retrofit within a fragment of a larger mill. The original part of the mill was burned down in a fire right before this project was executed. The new program is inserted with a sensitivity of preserving a certain sense of the original mill identity. New spaces are created within the fragment but the larger approach has been to highlight the remnant identity of the mill. The cafe is not associated with a brand but as a brand adopts the identity of the mill to create the ambiance that it wishes to sell.
Ill.3.2.2 Cafe Zoe
All reference images and base drawings are courtesy of the The Busride Studio
Ill.3.2.3 Cafe Zoe
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Volume: The cafe retains most of the volume of the space as no full height vertical partitions are used. However it does break the volume strategically for both functional and experiential purposes. (Ill.3.2.4)
Ill.3.2.4 Cafe Zoe: The reatained volume vs the new single height volume in section
The kitchen and services are placed along the periphery of the enclosure and again the bar is placed in the center of the major volume. The kitchen and other service areas are sealed off with single height vertical partitions and the a mezzanine has been added to create more floor space for seating. (Ill.3.2.5) The mezzanine is a very interesting addition. There is a cut out within the new mezzanine to create a smaller double height space within the new configuration of the space. A small plinth has been created on the edge opposite to that of the mezzanine which acts as accentuated seating and also as a stage for performances. The seating though has various spatial configurations created within the volume they fuse in seamlessly as there are no major thresholds used to divide the space. The railing made is visual very light and does not create a strong threshold in the new volume.
Ill.3.2.5 Cafe Zoe: The reatained volume vs the new single height volume in plan 98
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The bar seating is an elevated seating almost at the threshold of the two volumes making it a unique vantage point of experience.
Seating within the double volume lets you experience the complete volume as you dine.
Seating on the upper mezzanine level allows you to look over the entire volume of the cafe and offers yet another vantage point of experience.
Similarly seating under the mezzanine defines a certain domain and enables privacy amongst the guest but again opens up in the larger volume.
Ill.3.2.6 Cafe Zoe: The various vantage points within the seating area which have different spatial configurations
3.2 Cafe Zoe
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Materiality Cafe Zoe retains the expression of the exposed brick, uses brick as a surface to bind the new spaces with the old. The existing wall within the cafe retains the rough exposed finish.(Ill.3.1.7) All the vertical partitions created as additions are built in brick but are finished with a white wash and are not plastered. (Ill.3.1.8 )Through the difference in the finish a reciprocity between the old and the new is established.
Ill.3.2.7 The retaind materiality of expose brick in the cafe.
Ill.3.2.8 Vertical partitions between the kitchen and restaurant,Exposed brick finished with paint.
Just as it is done with the brick the new structure to accommodate he mezzanine is done with a more contemporary expression of mild steel. However the it is finished similarly to the old structure unifying the two in surface expression. The addition of the bar and its secondary elements are finished with ceramic black tiles and a polished wood. Similarly the new inhabitants that are added in terms of the seating tables and chairs again follow this materiality where it is dark black stained wooden chairs and stained wooden tables, with veneered tops.(Ill.3.2.9) The additions that sit within the draw material cues completely from the existing shell. The kitchen and mezzanine structure and portion walls are more contemporary expressions of brick and steel. Expressions of the old and new coexist within the space reciprocating each other. The furniture added is contemporary but subtly works along with the shell bound in coherence.
Ill.3.2.9 The furnitue inhabiting the space.
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The inner brick walls are retained and the roofing structure is also retained in its absolute echoing the memory of the old.
The structure and the partitioning walls reciprocate their materiality with the shell. The bar which is added within the space is connecting to the inhabitants in the space through their materiality. This decision is what binds the two distinct layers in the space.
The inhabitants have a distinct materiality in comparison to the shell. They are very contemporary in nature.
Ill.3.2.10 The reciprocity in the material concept.
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Language The industrial identity is completely retained in volume and expression of structure. The new mezzanine expresses not only a contemporary expression but the existing structure is further expressed by juxtaposing a new grid under the old roofing grid. (ill.3.2.11)The minimum offset of the mezzanine from the free standing column advocates this juxtaposition.
Ill.3.2.11 the new grid under the existing roof grid
The cafe expresses memory but again the new additions and inhabitants echo a contemporary language of cafes. The subtle blend of the old and the contemporary balance the overall experience of the space. Volumetric expression with new inhabitation of air ducts further extend the contemporary industrial identity in the old structure. The light installation created in the void above the bar further extends the contemporary industrial identify of using an unfiltered, direct light source in its bare austere nature. The reflectors and exposed air ducts add on to this language of expression.
Ill.3.2.12 The plinth which fluctuates as the stage for performances and events
Ill.3.2.13 the lighting installation above the bar
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The furniture is of a very contemporary language but it is still in harmony with the larger shell. It is not loud and the material and color palette is in harmony with the larger shell and the additions done. But again no direct relationship is made with the larger shell excepts on a color, finish and aesthetic level.
The industrial expression of the retained structure and the exposed brick walls.
Ill.3.2.14 the juxtaposition contemporary language.
The culmination of the languages in the double volume where all the juxtaposed layers can be seen.
of
the
indusrial
The contemporary furniture, the added bar and a new part plastered brick wall all components of the new language.
and
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Intervention* There are no major interventions in the space besides the basic required renovation. The major spatial insert done is that of a small plinth in the cafe. The plinth is a small intervention strategically placed to cater to the temporary function of a stage. It houses a DJ desk and is a space for accentuated seating on regular days. The plinth is in elevated in the most basic nature with a brick bed and concrete. It is finished with the same kota flooring that runs in the restaurant. Ill.3.2.15 - the intervention of the plinth in plan..
The intervention is a small intervention but a intervention none the less having a small footprint of the design imprint on the larger shell. This intervention would be out a direct need of the program. However it does not seen out of place in the larger language of the design and subtly sits within the larger space. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Interventions
Ill.3.2.16 - the intervention of the plinth in section. it is a very minimal intervention.
Ill.3.2.17 - the intervention of the plinth in section.
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Ill.3.1.18-Cafe Zoe- Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Plan -Interventions
4’
-Additions
8’
18’
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Additions* A major set of additions have been executed in the project. A mezzanine has been added that breaks the volume down along the edge of the site. The new space created under the new floor is utilized for the functional areas like the toilets and the kitchen. The mezzanine floor sitting under the existing roof and overlooking the volume is utilized for additional seating. The entry is from under the mezzanine. This makes the transition in volume gradual therefore enhancing the experience of the volume. Vertical partitions further divide the kitchen into three zones of the bakery display and billing counter, major kitchen and a wash and store. The toilets are placed behind the bar under the mezzanine. As a new mezzanine is created a staircase has been added for the newly created vertical circulation. This addition follows the language of the over all structure with a mild steel structure and kota stone for treads.
Ill.3.2.19 - Additions in plan. - the mezzanine plan can show us the nature of the mass built within the shell.
The structure of the addition is a contemporary expression on square mild steel box section clad with wood on two sides. The partitioning wall is in brick finished with paint retaining texture but not the actual color and tactility of brick. The staircase is again a mild steel structure made with a c-section . Treads are kota stone. The bar is clad with a glossy black ceramic tile. As we see the finishes echo and balance each other out. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Additions
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Ill.3.2.20 - additions in section - the partition s separating the kitchens and the other service areas. while the seating is kept at thresholds with the larger volume created.
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Ill.3.2.21 - additions in section -the addtions do not extend up to full height and sit in balance with the larger shell of the building.
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Inhabitants* A major set of inhabitants invade the space. The furniture for seating, the addition of services- electrical, plumbing and hvac are employed. Along with this a light installation and a piano, along with a DJ desk are also present within the space. The kitchen again is a space defined by the cooking equipments and storage elements that again create the industrial kitchen. The furniture is all lose furniture. With nothing but the bar being a fixed piece of furniture. This is a very intentional design decision as the designer does not wish to create a footprint within the shell. Lighting inhabits the space very subtly with very a minimum encroachment. The inhabitants come into the space as the contemporary layer of design which is purely stemming from the need of the program. While the additions are done completely in tandem with the shell, the inhabitants have their own design aesthetic. However this is not very loud and sits in reciprocity with the larger architectural idea. The furniture, lighting and the services all are executed in the design as a distinct layer. Therefore the shell and the additions become a backdrop for these inhabitants to function. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Inhabitants
Ill.3.2.22 - Inhabiatants flood the space both the carpet area on the ground floor and most of the mezzanine that is created.
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Ill.3.2.23 - inhabitation of the furniture,the hvac ducts and the lighitng installation.
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Ill.3.2.34 - inhabitation of the furniture and the hvac ducts
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Ill.3.1.25 - Cafe Zoe - The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
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-Additions
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4ft
8ft
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Interventions
Additions
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Apart from the restoration of the roof and addition of the small plinth. No major interventions are executed within the space leaving a footprint.
The additions of the mezzanine, the new structure an the partitions make a new distinct set of spaces most of these are utilized by the functional areas like the kitchen and toilets.
The inhabitants largely adhere to the program having a layer of services like lighting and hvac invade the larger volume. Most of the floor space is encroached by the seating furniture that caters to the larger program. However as they do not contradict the larger shell in scale and language, larger aesthetic and experience of the shell is retained.
Ill.3.1.26-Cafe Zoe- Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Section. -Interventions
-Additions
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Ill.3.1.27 - Cafe Zoe - The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
-Interventions 112
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The plinth is created overlooking the mezzanine and the bar. This strategic position makes it alternate between the stage and accentuated seating.
The additions of structure, mezzanine and the vertical partitions again are created directly from the programmatic need and are employed to separate out the functional spaces. However the entry space is from under the mezzanine. The seating under the mezzanine is near to the double height side and the upper part of the mezzanine creates a unique experience of overlooking at the volume. These traits of the additions adhere to the building.
Inhabitants are again a distinct layer when we look at the overall design. They have a contemporary language and distinct space from larger shell.
Ill.3.1.28-Cafe Zoe- Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Section. -Interventions
-Additions
-Inhabitants
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Conceptual Translation
Interventions
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Degree of Impact
Interaction in memory
The plinth for the stage is a very minor intervention leaving a minimum footprint on the space.\Therefore with minimum interventions the shell retains its former architectural concept defining the space.
The plinth has a minimum footprint and has a minimum degree of impact on the existing shell. This not only retains the building in its physical but also reatains the larger architectural concept governing the shell.
The intervention as an act is conscious of memory, with the extent that it does not impede or alter it in any way.
The addtions extend and reciprocate the language of the exisitng shell. However the new structure adds a new grid under the roof grid and withn the walls of the shell. Conceptually it can be said that a new built mass is created within the shell.
The secondary grid and mass crerated within the shell are a set of new spaces within the shell. however they do not over power the shell in any way.The material coherene allows the additions to coexist with both the shell and the layer of furniture that comes in the space.
Additions reciprocate memory to a point where the old is expressed and the new reciprocates this expression withour mimicking it.. The single height partitions and structuree do not encroach on the larger volume and allow the shell to retain its expression and memeory value.
The inhabitants are largely added for their functional value and don not extend beyond that in the larger new concept.
Though minimal in nature the light installation and the exposed hvac ducts are key to creating an ambiance necessary to experience the volume. So the inhabitants do not architecturally change the space, but experientially they are necessary for the desirability of the space.
All the inhabitants are in strong adherence to the program and strictly in comparison to the shell show indifference. This makes it a distinct layer of spatial elements but as they are not overpowering in form and scale they sit in balance within the larger space.
Chapter 3 Case Studies
Inference Cafe Zoe has a very simplistic approach towards the addressed shell. New spaces are created in adherence to the new functional needs of the program. Its a condition where a smaller built mass dedicated to producing food is recreated within the built volume. The retained volume becomes a space in between the old and new. The new is experienced directly with furniture the furniture but the old is retained within the visual experience that is directed by the design. The cafe creates a smaller mass within the larger volume which houses the functional areas and services. Whereas the large volume is dedicated to a functional as well as an experiential aspect of seating. This volume retains its openness with minimum thresholds. The cafe is not associated with any brand but adopts the mill identity as the face of the enterprise. Here we see that the designer adopts an attitude to reciprocate with the existing building in multiple layers of design. The degree of intervention and addition to the part of the addressed shell is very minimal.
3.2 Cafe Zoe
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Social
Mathuradas Mill Compound
3.3 Social
Design Firm: Studio 823 Location:Bombay, India Year of Completion:2013
Ill.3.3.1 - Social entrance
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Client: Social Area: 1000 sqm Duration: October2006- November 2007 Program: Restaurant, brasserie and bar Description: Social as a brand claims to be “..a space that blends the best of the office and the café. Combining work and play, it’s an urban hangout designed to take you offline while still keeping you connected. Social is a collaborative workspace, a hub for artists and innovators.” However it ends up just being bar that offers a monthly deal on wifi and food. Though the identity and the branding of the franchise is done as a flexible workspace/bar it largely caters Ill.3.3.2 - Social to more as restaurant bar. The Todi mills social is part of a larger franchise and has other venues across Bombay and other cities like Bangalore and Delhi. The design caters and adheres more to the building than reciprocating with this complex brief of the program. The design extends the industrial identity to its new concept resonating memory in multiple layers of design. All reference images and base drawings are courtesy of the Studio Eight Twenty three
Ill.3.3.3 - Social
3.3 Social
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Volume The volume has been reconfigured to get various sets of seating spaces. The existing site had a set of cast iron columns but the wooden trusses that were held with those cast iron columns were burnt down in a fire before the site was addressed for adaptive re-use. The same cast iron columns are reused and a new grid is reconfigured to house the mezzanine. Though a new grid is created certain cues and guidelines are taken from the existing shell for positioning g this structure. The new spaces created out of this reconfiguration are : the bar, kitchen, additional seating spaces and toilets.
Ill.3.3.4 - Social - The ground floor imposes a new grid on the floor while the roof grid sits over the mezzanine
A container has been inserted to create an entrance space for the bar. This container again creates a small volume which again open out into the larger volume making the transition gradual in experience. This idea of transition of volume continues throughout the design as the mezzanine breaks and cuts the volume into various fragments spread across the bar. The volume of the larger shell is retained as there are minimum vertical partitions. Partitions separating the kitchen are singe height and the entire mezzanine is retained as an open volume. The railing also as a threshold is visually made minimum as to visually also retain the volume. The volume is free of breaks and partitions but it is invaded by various programmatic objects like ducts, banners, lights and growing plants.
Ill.3.3.5 - Social - The ground floor grid and the two level
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The container enables the transition form the street to the shipping container to the larger volume of the shed. Also the dark container opens out in the bright skylight volume.
The ground floor has a variation in volumes which are dedicated to various seatings therefore using these created volumes for experience. These double heights visually connect the mezzanine level with the ground retaining this experience for the volume.
The mezzanine breaks the volume strategically enabling a transition in volumes The skylights flood this volume with light.
Ill.3.3.6 - Social - The play of volumes
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Materiality The shell retains most of the material finishes that were inherent in the building. The walls are bare without any plaster and the structure has been retained in its retention of all surfaces and fenestrations. The truss and roof has been recreated as the original roof was destroyed when the site was addressed for re-use. However as per the guideline laid forward in 2006 the roof has to be restored with specific guidelines for material use and truss depth.
Ill.3.3.7
The new additions are executed in brick and metal construction. The new circulation that has been added has a very sleek structure made out of metal plate. The design is contemporary but the materiality resonates and reciprocates with that of the metal structure inherent to the shell. The contemporary industrial aesthetic which celebrates industrial nature of design of the sixties and seventies is used as a language within various lighting, furniture and finish level of the additions done in the project. This is a complete thematic extension of the architectural identity into the interior concept. The theme of re-use of furniture also comes as a resonance within a shell that is being re-used.
Ill.3.3.8
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The inner brick walls are retained along with the fenestrations. this retains the original materiality of the building
The new additions and inhabitants extend this industrial identity with their language and design aesthetic. The Larger concept of re-use of objects with re-use of various old furniture pieces and fixtures.
The resultant language is a combination of the retained industrial identity in the shell and the extended identity in the additions and inhabitants.
Ill.3.3.9 - the retention and extension of materiality
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Language The industrial identity is retranslated and presented within this project. The project retains the character of the shell and the new design completely reciprocates this in language. The industrial identity is retained and further extended with all the additions that come in the space.
Ill.3.3.10
The mezzanine and the structure that sit in the space are extending the existing language of the space. The columns are reused and reconfigured. The new slab that is created is in mild steel c-channels and a mild steel. Etched plates for flooring. The partitioning walls between the kitchen and the main restaurant area is clad with copper metal sheets and other partitions have an exposed finish. All the fenestrations that have been used have been restored and retained. The volume is kept bare without any false ceilings with exposed hvac air ducting and lights .
Ill.3.3.11
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The Shell has skylights in the roof which enable a daylighting. This concept is further advocated with a green patch created with an undulating plinth. The plantation would require natural light for growth which gets advocated with this concept. At the same time the night lighting concept also uses the shell for its purposes. a part of the wall has been painted white for projections. However these projections happen on a texture. Further dance and disco lights are incorporated for creating a discotheque environment in the night.
The contemporary industrial identity resonates in all the new surfaces and additions that are done in the building. This extended identity is a of reflection on the larger concepts that are associated to mass production and the factory. this extends the identity of the factory within the interior.
The retained industrial identity embodied within the shell and the extend identity in the additions and the inhabitants coexist with each other in the space complementing each other.
The brick surfaces and the fenestrations are completely retained. This material expression is what retains the larger memory aspect of the building. This aspect of retaining materiality retains the larger memory value of the shell and building.
Ill.3.3.13 - the merging of the languages
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Interventions* There are interventions done on three levels within the larger architectural shell. The first occurs at the plinth level where the plinth has been modulated. The plinth has been raised for the plumbing in the toilet areas whereas a depression has been made along the edge of the building for plants. Finally the plinth has been raised to create a stage which oscillates as accentuated seating within usual days. The second level of intervention is in the wall where a depression has been made to accommodate the shipping container for the entry. This intervention again being smaller in footprint directly impacts the facade of the building making a permanent alteration.
Ill.3.3.14
Ill.3.3.15
The roof is the third level of intervention. As the roof had burned down a new roof had to be added. However based on the guidelines of the state certain mandates had to be followed regarding form, size , height and truss depth for the design. This imposition helps retain an identity but this is anew layer added to the space having a different time signature in its existence. The fourth intervention is that of the reconfiguration of the column grid. The same cast iron. Columns that exist in the space have been reconfigured to house a new structure. These columns were not meant for a structure and were intended to house a heavier wooden truss. However as the truss became lighter the columns were reconfigured to house a new structure. This is a unique intervention where an existing architectural element has been repurposed. *Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Interventions
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Ill.3.3.16Social -Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Section. -Interventions
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Additions* There are multiple sets of additions in the space. The first is that of the shipping container which is used to create the entry/reception space. It also facilitates the transition if volume. The second set is of the vertical partitions that divide the kitchen and toilet areas. These set of partitions are constructed in brick. However they are clad with metal sheets therefore adding a different set of an expression to it.
Ill.3.3.17
The mezzanine creates additional administrative work space and additional seating on the new level created within the existing volume. The staircase is added to create the vertical circulation between the ground and the mezzanine level. The columns are re-used, the slab and beams are contemporary expressions of mild steel with i beams and mild steel flooring plates for the slab. The staircase is again constructed with a folded metal plate. None of the additions break the larger open volume created on the mezzanine level. Therefore in spite of there being a set of breaks on the ground floor level. The mezzanine level completely retains the linearity as there are no thresholds breaking the volume down.
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*Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Additions
Interventions
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The roof is a necessary intervention, and follows the larger established guidelines. The roof is a new addition to the existing components of the larger architectural shell. However the addition of skylights is a very conscious decision.
The additions primarily consist of the portions separating the kitchen and toilets, the bar and the mezzanine overing all these spaces from above. The structure imposes a new structural grid and creates new sets of volumes.
Inhabitants as furniture flood the entire space. Further services of lighting and hvac are also exposed. The entire volume is utilized by various kinds of inhabitants ranging from disco lights and speakers, to hvac ducts and promotional banners. Therefore the volume is utilized by the inhabitants for both experiential and functional aspects.
Ill.3.3.19- Social Cafe Zoe- Coexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Section. -Interventions
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Inhabitants* A varied set of inhabitants come in the space in the course of this project. The seating furniture is of a varied typology and echoes multiple design languages and aesthetics. The kitchen is again an industrial kitchen which is retrofit within the allocated section. The inhabitants are completely derived out of the contemporary industrial identity consisting of exposed ducts, reused furniture and accessories. However some furniture follow a contemporary design language completely indifferent to the larger shell created.
Ill.3.3.20
A few programmatic objects like the DJ desk, speakers and disco lights are installed within the volume becoming a distinct layer of design. At the same time a manual hand-loom has been placed within the space just as an ode to memory. With the varying nature of furniture that comes within the space multiple relationships are established between the shell and this layer of inhabitants. Inhabitants therefore individually exhibit as objects create relationships of reciprocity and indifference with the larger shell that is created.
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*Refer chapter 2 Section:2.3 Elemental responses, Inhabitants
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The skylights extend the daylighting concept that the windows and fenestration put forward. This is further extend in the planter that has been created in the plinth. This intervention is directly linked with the skylights as daylighting is essential for the growth of plants. the plinth is also raised to create accentuated seating which can morphs into the stage for events.
The container which acts as the entry space is a unique addition in the space. It echoes the contemporary industrial language, as it extents the larger concept of re-using industrial entities.
The inhabitants consisting of the lighting and furniture extend the contemporary industrial identity . Plants have invade d the space along with the sunlight adding a green layer within the space.
Ill.3.3.22 -SocialCoexistence of Intervention, Additions and Inhabitants in Section. -Interventions
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Ill.3.1.23 - Social- The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
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Ill.3.1.24 - Social- The degree of impact in space - Interventions, additions and inhabitants.
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Conceptual Translation
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Degree of Impact
Interaction in memory
The roof is a very necessary intervention done in accordance to the norms laid by governing policy. However the repurposing of the column grid is a unique move where an element of memory has been reused but its manifestation results in a new configuration of Space. Similarly the plinth is an intervention purely done out of the need if the program.
The modulation of the plinth done to house the planters and the elevated stage bring change the floor for now. The skylights in the roof are very essential and trivial to the daylighting condition created within the space. This concept further is extended with plantations done in the space. The puncture made in the wall allows the container to enter the space.
The intervention of the roof completely retains the former dimension of the space therefore recreating the original volume. But the modulation of the plinth is the alteration which is adding a new layer of landscape to the shell.
The additions allow the volume to be retained as there are no full height breaks. The mezzanine disects the volume vertically, but it creates various pockets of double volume. This variation of volumes is enabled by the new concept which makes the new concept
The modulation of the plinth done to house the planters and the elevated stage bring change the floor for now. The skylights in the roof are very essential and trivial to the daylighting condition created within the space. This concept further is extended with plantations done in the space. The puncture made in the wall allows the container to enter the space.
The additions create a new set of volumes based on the programmatic need. However the re-use of the cast iron columns for this helps retaining architectural elements of the original
The inhabitants extend the industrial identity within the space. The concept of re-use is also extended within the interior space where furniture has been restored and re-used. The industrial aesthetic is employed in the selection of various light fixtures and in other interior details.
we can observe different degrees of impact by inhabitants. Just as the plants reciprocate thedaylighting concept, we see the place transform into a nightclub at night with flashing lights and loud music. This transformation is facilitated by the lights, projectors and sound systems inhabit the space. This creates a larger impact on the space.
The inhabitants extend the idea of memory by echoing an aesthetic of the past. Therefore they go hand in hand with the building complement the shell.
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Inference Social completely extends the industrial identity through all the three responses of intervention, addition and inhabitation. The intervention of the roof retains the scale and the form of the former building. The creation of skylights floods the space with light. The additions re-use the existing columns of the site to create a mezzanine. Inhabitants invade the space completely, ranging a container to re-used industrial pulleys. Additions and inhabitants extend the concepts and aesthetics that are embodied by the industrial building that is being re-used. All the three layers adhere to the building. We see that again a smaller mass has been created within the larger volume to house the kitchen, bar and toilets while the remaining spaces are retained within the larger volume. The interesting condition here is that just like the blue frog acoustic lounge social carries a brand identity. However it adopts and extends the industrial identity of the shed. Therefore we see that the brand identity of social is condensed to the banners, signs and logos of the bar that flood the space but there is no spatial implication as such.
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4.0 The Emergent Attitude 4.1 Comparitive Analysis 4.2 Manufactured Memory 4.3 Academic Attitudes 4.4 Attitudes Towards Memory
memory noun: memory; plural noun: memories
-the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. -something
the past.
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remembered from
4.0 Conservation through Re-use Within the larger area of lower Parel we can see that the larger attitude is that of demolishing old industrial buildings to make way for new high rise development. The mills that survive post 2006 as per the stay imposed by the high court are getting reused to generate revenue within the booming real estate of the area. Now it is interesting to see that as a certain quotient of memory value is addressed by the designers within the building is the only memory value that the building would possess as most of the rampart development around the mills has now dissolved the larger industrial character of the neighborhood. Therefore we can say that a certain amount of memory has been conserved within the fragments of the buildings through their re-use.
4.1 Comparative analysis In all three case studies we see that designers come up with an interior concept where memory is retained while the new function is addressed. There is a certain amount of coherence that comes about within all the projects because of the constraints of the site context and the similar programmatic response. I have compared individual aspects of the projects to understand the commonalities and the differences that set apart each of these projects but still help retain memory of the shell.
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Volume
COMMON RESPONSE IN DESIGN TOWARDS MEMORY THROUGH VOLUME
Building Strategic Retention of Response Qualified volume - qualified by the building by the program (context) for experiential Memory value
Volume Strategic Creation of a smaller mass within the volume to house the functional areas
Response Qualified by Program (Content)
Program
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As we see, all the projects try to retain a large part of the original volume within the allocated space that is given to them. In all analyzed case studies, new single height spaces are created for functional areas like the kitchen and the toilets. The larger retained volume is dedicated to more experiential spaces like the seating spaces. The retained volume is directly used for its experiential value which is unique to this typology of the building. Therefore using memory value of the building for its ambiance. The volume is also retained with the idea of the larger space being able to fluctuate between functions. Although the degree of targeted design is varied, the spaces fluctuate into similar kinds of spaces. The dance floor fluctuates between a seating area and open space in Blue Frog. Whereas the seating areas and the circulation spaces get cleared up in cafe Zoe and social to cater to larger events and as a dance floor. The designers in all three cases use a vertical break to define the entry of the space. Blue Frog carefully positions its entry through existing single height,space in the site. In Cafe Zoe the mezzanine is extended over the entry to create the transition. Social uses the insert of the container to do the same. In all the three conditions we see that largely the single height spaces are created with the idea of housing the kitchen and the toilets. This is a case where a smaller mass is created within the larger shell for functional use.
Materiality We see three distinct approaches in all the three cafes. However the structure that is retained is kept bare and austere. Even in the case of social where the structure was recreated the new structure was kept bare. The cast iron columns are retained in all three scenarios. Blue Frog juxtaposes a new layer of materials in the space also encroaching on the existing surfaces. It simultaneously creates a reciprocity by using wood in the seating booths reflecting on the existing wooden trusses. Therefore though radical in its expression creates a balance within the old and new. Cafe Zoe presents the shell in its austere manner. The addition is minimal in nature and reciprocates the materiality of the structure. Similarly the addition express brick but does not mimic the expression and the new layer of the inhabitants although contemporary is not loud and sits with balance. Social similarly retains and further extends the industrial identity. The walls which were largely what was given as part of the site are completely retained with a few minor alterations. The new additions express metal and steel construction which echoes the contemporary industrial identity. The inhabitants are again an eclectic set of objects but echo a coherence in the industrial expression.
COMMON RESPONSE IN DESIGN TOWARDS MEMORY THROUGH MATERIALITY
Building Strategic retention Response Qualified of materiality of by the building the structure and (context) the shell.
Materiality Diverse Responses addressing the
Response Qualified by Program (Content)
Program
At the end we get three distinct approaches at materiality. However in all cases a part of the original materiality is retained to echo the old.
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Language In all three projects the language of the industrial building is retained and is addressed differently in all the three projects.
COMMON RESPONSE IN DESIGN TOWARDS MEMORY THROUGH LANGUAGE OF DESIGN
Building Diverse nature of Response Qualified responses adhering by the building to material and (context) language cues offered by the building
Language Diverse nature of responses adhering to different design languages
Response Qualified by Program (Content)
Programme
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Blue frog conflicts the larger identity of the shed and imposes its brand identity on the shed. The identity of the industrial shed is however condensed to the roof and the column structure which is juxtaposed against the new language of the inserted additions. Cafe Zoe retains the industrial identity again through the structure and the inner walls of the shed which are retained as it is. The additions and inhabitants complement this but also bring in a contemporary language of design in the space. However both identities balance each other and an equilibrium in space is achieved. Social as a cafe retains the industrial language of the building and completely extends it within the language of the additions and the inhabitants that enter the space. Therefore language becomes one of the key factors where all the cafes differ from each other in design.
Interventions In all three cases we see that two interventions are consistently repeated. The roof is renovated in all the cases. In strict regard to the policy established, the roof is restored in the same manner as it would have been. This is done with the intention of retaining the identity and characteristic of the building. There are strict regulations to the manner and conduct of this restoration process that becomes a constraint for the designers. However in my opinion this does not account for much as it is creating a reconstructed memory value within the building. The plinth is modulated in all three cases. This is a direct programmatic response. All spaces are primarily restaurant/bars, but as these spaces also aim to host various kinds of events and performances. For this need there is a spatial requirement of a stage which is addressed by this created plinth. In all cases interventions are executed out of direct functional needs but are executed in a manner that the character of the shell is retained.
COMMON RESPONSE IN DESIGN -INTERVENTIONS
Building Response Qualified Restoration of the by the building structure and the (context) roof.
Interventions
Modulation of Plinth,
Response Qualified by Program (Content)
Program
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Additions All formats of additions are observed within the three projects.
COMMON RESPONSE IN DESIGN -ADDITIONS
BUILDING Response Qualified by the building (context)
Diverse Responses
ADDITIONS
Diverse Responses
Response Qualified by Program (Content)
PROGRAM
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Blue frog is exceptional in the nature that it executes full height vertical partitions to define a space. It modulates the floor is a manner that new space is defined and circulation is enabled within this new space. Similarly both cafe Zoe and social create mezzanines to break the volume vertically and create staircases to enable circulation in this newly created space. In all three cases the kitchen, and services are defined within the new spaces created by various combinations of additions in the space. New built mass is created within the shell to house these functional areas. The encroachment of the additions vary in all degrees. But in all three cases, additions do not encroach over the existing elements of the shell in scale. The new additions sit within the larger shell retaining a major chunk of the original volume. All three designers create a smaller mass within the larger shell to house these functional spaces and services. Where as the larger open volume is utilized for seating. Additions vary in design in all projects but create a reciprocity with the shell at a material level in all three cases.
Inhabitants This layer of design varies the most in all designs. However there are a certain similarities in all designs as well. The furniture is a different set in all three examples. Blue frog has fixed booths. While Cafe Zoe mostly uses lose tables-chairs and a bar seating. Social employs all three arrangements of booths, tables and chair and also a bar seating. All three are adhering to literally the same function but different designs are employed. Services like the hvac ducts and other programmatic inhabitants like speakers inhabit the larger volume at hand to cater the functional needs of the space. They adhere to different degrees of intrusion within the space but their presence impacts the space greatly. The inhabitants directly respond to the program that is subjected to the shell therefore varying with one another the most. Therefore this becomes an entity that imposes the new layer that enters the space. The language and the aesthetic of this layer of inhabitants interacts the most with the existing shell that exists.
COMMON RESPONSE IN DESIGN -INHABITANTS
BUILDING Response Qualified Extending material by the building cues and an (context) industrial aesthetic
INHABITANTS
Diverse Responses
Response Qualified by Program (Content)
PROGRAM
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Other salient common design traits. The industrial kitchen In all the three cases we see that the industrial kitchen infiltrating the space. Its more than obvious that a kitchen would be built for a restaurant. But that is where i disagree. The kitchen becomes a plug-in with all architectural details of the kitchen completely transformed into a product making almost a plug-in. Therefore the idea of the kitchen that exist during the time of the conception of the building is actually replaced by a spatial scale product.
Reciprocating with daylighting The skylight becomes an important design trait that is addressed in all three project. Cafe Zoe celebrates the skylight and the daylighting condition through a programmatic decision of the cafe being functional from breakfast to night. We also see that because of a daylighting concept we see the intrusion of landscape within the industrial realm. Plants come in above the kitchen on the loft in cafe Zoe while a much larger intrusion of plants can be seen in social. Blue frog does not having day time functioning hours but still incorporates the north lights in the new design by using them as surfaces for projections. This makes a daylighting architectural element active during the night hours. Therefore the architectural concept of daylighting which is manifest within the architectural element of the north light is addressed in all the three designs.
Brand identity Blue Frog and Social are both Cafes which are a part of a larger franchise and both posses a strong brand identity. However in both these cases they do not dilute out the industrial identity that the building possesses but reciprocate it and further extend it. Similarly cafe Zoe adopts this identity and expresses it within its design.
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The Emergent Attitude We see an attitude where in all three cases the volume is retained for its experiential purpose. Similarly materiality and design language reciprocate this notion but are large;y dictated by the program. Though materiality and language play a very crucial role in this, we see that in all three cases materiality and language of the original are retained in their prime. The additions and inhabitants that occupy the space interact with this retained language. However strategic retention is necessary for this interaction to happen. One design response is coherent in all three designs. We see that a larger volume is retained and subsequently a smaller mass is created to house services like toilets and functional areas like the kitchen and the bar are enclosed within a new mass that is created within the larger volume. Volume is the key trait of the building that is exploited by the designer. However in the larger situation we see that strategic retention of both the existing spatial language and materiality follows the retaining of the volume. However the new design may have diverse responses to these aspects of retained volume, materiality and language of the building.
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4.2 Manufactured Memory We come across a region in Bombay where rampart and hazardous development in and around the mill compounds has engulfed the industrial fabric into a larger undefined character that the city of Bombay possesses. The final fragments that survive are undergoing re-use. The revenue that these properties generate is one of the key reasons as to why these are being re-use but not the reason that they survive. Their survival is trivial to the point that it has demolition is illegal by law. However through this legal step and the programmatic alteration of commercial use we come across a unique condition. Within these fragments of the compound we see that memory value of the building has been utilized for its experiential purpose. There we can say that the memory value that has been lost from the larger urban fabric is manufactured again within these small fragments. Therefore the memory that is experienced within these is not true memory of the large mills, but a small fragment of a much larger embodied memory that the larger neighborhood, that is now created because of their new functions. Also the pace and rate of development at which the area is proceeding i do not see much of a life exist within these buildings. The moment you imagine all the residential towers around built and people moved in - i believe these sheds will be cleared out for larger public concerns like car parks and urban infrastructure . I believe that the mills in lower Parel have re-use as a life support program and the moment the monetary flow stops these will be razed to the ground. However the re-used bars in Mathuradas mill compound teach us a very important lesson. Buildings do not have to be preserved like antiques in a museum, but have to be allowed to take the onslaught of time. We live in an age where every building demolished is a piece of history lost and environmental damage done. However if allowed to reciprocate industrial buildings can adapt to the needs of time if addressed in due time.
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4.3 Academic Attitudes What we can understand out of the case studies done and the final condition of these mills is that the large open volume is the key trait of the industrial building that is retained and explored by the designer. However this retained volume is a false sense of memory again as the addressed sites in all scenarios were fragments of a larger volume. This fragmentation is done because to lease out parts of the same building to different entrepreneurs. Therefore a larger sense of memory can be addressed if these buildings are addressed as a whole and similarly if a larger area is addressed for planning. This condition is addressed academically by various institutions and students in various design thesis. We look at 5 examples from different institutions and different academic programs where the issue of re-using industrial buildings is addressed. We look at examples of using industrial buildings on a larger scale in industrial buildings of Bombay and Ahmadabad. Through these cases we understand how memory addressed in a more direct and pure form when the building is addressed as a whole. We again see a diverse nature of programmatic responses and a diverse range of scale of proposals. We look at a master plan and design proposal where a larger urban industrial fabric has been addressed in Bombay . A defunct mill building in Lower Parel where a mill has been converted into a corporate house. A defunct sugarcane factory on the outskirts of Bombay which has been addressed as a public space. And two responses to similar condition in the city of Ahmedabad where a similar condition of industrial buildings prevails. We look at one condition were residential design is addressed for re-use and another where a hybrid workspace is proposed for the same. The Projects are: 1)Revitalizing Mumbai textile lands for the city 2)EVA 3) Twitter Office 4) Artist Residency 5) E.V..I.L. Center
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1 Project: Revitalizing Mumbai textile mill lands for the city
Student : Vinay Arun Surve Institute: Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master Of Architecture Year:2011 Brief: The thesis explores textile mills development in the heart of the city of Mumbai, its drawbacks and proposes a development plan for a mill premise for the benefit of the city. It is an attempt to preserve the city’s old fabric, which at one time was a city in itself and merge its fabric with the new development in a cohesive manner. I was looking at the response to the historic city and how you add new work to it by superimposing or juxtaposing. The success of the building is in its layering, its discovery by the visitor and its ability to make a public building truly public. The thesis explores reuse and conservation of industrial buildings at a larger urban scale.
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2 Project: EVA
Student : Parantap Bhatt Institute: Professional Studio, 9th Sem, Done as part of Bachelor of Design, Faculty of Design CEPT University , Ahmedabad. Year:2011 Brief: EVA is a project where a factory located on the highway connecting Bombay to Shirdi is addressed as a science center. The projects aims at showing how industrial shed can be used for large scale public projects which would not only utilize the building but add on the legacy that it possess.
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3 Project: Twitter Corporate House
Student :Sharmeen Attarwala Institute: Corporate Studio, 7th Sem, Done as part of Bachelor of Design, Navrachna University, Baroda. Year:2014 Brief: The Project aims at looking at a government occupied Mill located in Lower Parel, Bombay. The entire mill is addressed as an corporate house for the web portal twitter. The entire building is addressed along with the surrounding grounds which are part of the larger site that the building occupies. The design retrofits a corporate house within the interior of the shed. The project investigates the possibility of preserving a building like this within the constraints of a private sector Project.
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4 Project: Artist Residency
Student : Haripriya Vellodi Institute: Professional Studio, 9th Sem, Done as part of Bachelor of Design, Faculty of Design CEPT University , Ahmedabad. Year:2016 Brief: The Project looks at a part of a larger mill compound in the city of Ahmedabad where a singular industrial shed has been considered for re-use. The shed is proposed to be an artist residency within an unused part of the city of an industrial district. The project addresses one industrial shed in a larger complex. The project looks at the potential of residential design within the larger architectural framework of the industrial sheds.
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5 Project: Entreprenuerial Venture, Incubation and Liason Center
Student : Advait Patel Institute: Professional Studio, 9th Sem, Done as part of Bachleor of Design, Faculty of Design CEPT University , Ahmedabad. Year:2015 Brief: In this project one such site is addressed where a building from a complex is addressed for adaptive reuse thus activating the complex.The Industrial Complex is located between the two cities of Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad in Gujarat,an economically developed state contributing Major to the nationathe location is aptly connected with centers for both gaining investment and avenues for developing an industry.The project looks at the a proposal where a larger abandoned complex is utilised for a diverse nature of activities ranging from workshops to office spaces.
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4.4 Attitudes towards Memory After understanding the diverse nature of responses that go into addressing the industrial buildings i propose three responses towards memory that can be implied. These responses are not direct guidelines but can be considered as three extreme outcomes of the dialogue that the new design will create with the old building. 1- Contemporisation 2- Extension 3- Alienation
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Contemporisation “The process of bringing organization up to date.�
an
activity
or
The new concept respects and retains the original building in its true form but completely adheres to the identity of the contemporary time adding a layer of the present to the past and reciprocating the layering in time.
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Extension “a part that is added to something to enlarge or prolong it.� The new concept completely retains the memory and extends it within the new concept that is imposed on the space. This extension happens with direct and indirect translations true to the original concept defining the building.
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Alienation the state or experience of being alienated.� the new concept does not adhere to the identity of the existing building but is alien to its physical presence. It does not reduce the memory of the existing but conflicts it with its alien presence to an extent that it seems out of context in time and in place.
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Bibliography Adarkar, Neera and Padma Achwal Desai. “Destruction of a Legacy : Mumbai’s Mills Lands in a Globalizing Context.” Shannon, Kelly and Janina Gosseye. Reclaiming (the Urbanism of) Mumbai. Sun Academia, n.d. Adarkar, Neera, Sandhya Srinivas and Alka Pradhan. 600 Acres of Mill Lands: For the Public or the Privileged. Mumbai, n.d. Brooker, Graeme and Sally Stone ,Context + environment in Interior Arcitecture Brooker, Graeme Form and structure in Interior Architecture Correa, Charles, Recycling Urban Land, Mills For Sale: The Way Ahead, Mumbai Cramer, Johannes, Architecture in existing fabric : planning design building - Basel Birkhauser Croft, Virginia, Recycled as restaurants : case studies in adaptive reuse. Douglas, James, Building adaptation. Book - Ed.2 D’Monte, Darryl, ed. Mills for Sale : The Way Ahead. Mumbai, India: Marg Publications, 2006. --, Extracts from the Report of the Study Group Appointed by the Government of Maharashtra in 1996 to Prepare a Plan for Cotton Textile Mills in Mumbai, Mills For Sale: The Way Ahead, Mumbai. Fragner, Benjamin Vestiges of industry : architectural conversion of industrial heritage in the Cech Republic. Scott, Fred On altering architecture Stratton, Michael. Industrial Buildings: Conservation and Regeneration. Taylor & Francis, 2000. Jacobson, Clare Ed ,Slow manifesto : lebbeus woods blog Tschumi, Bernard,Event-cities : praxis. Tschumi, Bernard Manhattan transcrips. Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 3 : concept vs. context vs. content Tschumi, Bernard Event-cities 4 : concept-form Tschumi, Bernard, Architecture and disjunction.
Un published research thesis Retrofitting the existing examining reuse through interventions in existing settings. Thesis by Singh, Urvashi; Nagarsheth, Snehal (Guide). The Adaptive Reuse of Historic Industrial Buildings: Regulation Barriers, Best Practices and Case Studies -Sophie Francesca Cantell - Virginia Polytechnique institute and State University, 2005 Adaptive reuse : Indian Scenario. Thesis by Bhatt, Bhaumik; Nagarsheth, Snehal (Guide). Revitalizing Mumbai textile mill lands for the city- Vinay Surve -University of Massachusetts Amherst -2011 Shailja Patel - Rethinking Factory: A study of design opportunities and constraints an Adaptive Re-use of mills in Mumbai List of Figures Chapter 1 f:1.1-14- Web Sources Chapter 2 f:2.1-21- Web Sources Chapter 3 f:3.1- Rethinkin Factory f:3.2-3 Web Sources List OF Illustrations Chapter 2 - all illustrations are drawn by the author. Base and reference images: via google images and archdaily
Chapter 3 -3.1 All base and reference drawings and photographs are Courtesy of Serie Architects - All illustrations redrawn by author.
-3.2 All base and reference drawings and photographs are Courtesy of TheBusride Studio - All illustrations redrawn by author.
-3.3
All base and reference drawings and photographs are Courtesy of Studio Eight Twenty Three- All illustrations redrawn by author.
Chapter 4 - All illustrations drawn by author.
Web Sources Automobile Design Studio/ SJK Architects- http://www.archdaily.com/772444/ automobile-design-studio-sjk-architect Bankara Store / studio201architects - http://www.archdaily.com/782572/ankara-storestudio201architects Brothers Brewery + Juke Joint BBQ / MA Studio ttp://www.archdaily.com/781056/ brothers-brewery-plus-juke-joint-bbq-ma-studio Camperdown Childcare / CO-AP - http://www.archdaily.com/584781/camperdownchildcare-co-ap Espai Baronda- http://www.archdaily.com/499579/espai-baronda-alonso-y-balaguer Factory Life / Julie D’Aubioul - http://www.archdaily.com/366055/factory-life-julie-daubioul Gearwheel Factory Reconversion / Ronald Janssen Architects + Donald Osborne Architecthttp://www.archdaily.com/773866/gearwheel-factory-reconversion-ronaldjanssen-architects-plus-donald-osborne-architect Hughes Warehouse Adaptive Reuse / Overland Partners - http://www.archdaily. com/548804/hughes-warehouse-adaptive-reuse-overland-partners Inner City Warehouse / Allen Jack+Cottier - http://www.archdaily.com/770290/innercity-warehouse-allen-jack-plus-cottier The Mill / WT Architecture -http://www.archdaily.com/623555/the-mill-wt-architecture Seona Reid Building / Steven Holl Architects- http://www.archdaily.com/483381/ seona-reid-building-steven-holl-architects Virgen del Carmen Bar / Estudio Arn Arquitectos -http://www.archdaily.com/795208/ virgen-del-carmen-bar-estudio-arn-arquitectos Vacheron Headqaurters/Bernard Tschumi - http://www.tschumi.com/projects/10/ Zenith Hall / Bernard Tschumi - http://www.tschumi.com/projects/9/ -http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47846390.cms?utm_ source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst -www.archdaily.com -google images -wikepedia - dezeen -designboom
Overlays
Ill.3.3.19
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Ill.3.1.23
Ill.3.1.26
Ill.3.3.16
Ill.3.2.28
Ill.3.2.26
Ill.3.2.18
Ill.3.3.26