A RCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2014 - 2019
AMAN KALRA
C URRICULUM VITAE
PROFILE I believe that architecture has the capacity to make a difference in the society. What interests me in this profession is using both creativity and practicality to think rationally in difficult situations. I am always curious to learn and question more, and eager to work in a team.
EDUCATION Chandigarh College of Architecture // Chandigarh, India Bachelor of Architecture Birla Bharati // Kolkata, W.B, India Central Board of Secondary Education
EXPERIENCE Lina Gothmeh Architecture // 2017 // Paris, France Architectural Intern Design development, 3d modeling, Physical modeling, CAD drawing development, Research
AMAN KALRA Kolkata, W.B, India amankalra.cca@gmail.com +91 7837978609
CCA Consultancy // 2018 // Chandigarh, India Architect Design development, Research, CAD drawing development, Publication Dilmeet Singh Studio // 2016-17 // Chandigarh, India Freelance Architect Design development, 3d modeling, Physical modeling India Lost and Found // 2019 // Kolkata, India Voluntary Photographer Photographing the heritage buildings of Kolkata PLAN B // 2016 // Chandigarh, India Co-founder Oranising competitions, workshops Freelance // 2015-present Poster design, Logo design, Editorial design
APTITUDES Rhino 3D
AutoCAD
Illustrator
InDesign
Grasshopper
Revit
Photoshop
Lightroom
ACHIEVEMENTS G-SEN // Design Jurors choice
ANDC // Design First place
Re-Gen // Logo 2nd Runners-up
Archumen // Arch. Quiz Runners-up
Adaptive Reuse // Design First place
Vowels // Installation First place
TABLE OF CONTENTS
01
THAR HABITAT FORUM
01-18
The thesis Thar Habitat Forum aims to find the intersection of architecture, technology, culture and environment by selecting a region in a cultural landscape that is subjected to extreme climatic conditions. The selected urban environment is the city of Jaisalmer. Through a site specific approach, the intention was to respond to the past while looking at the present needs and future challenges that create an impact on both micro and macro levels.
02
BLUES LC18
19-24
Blues LC18 was the stage design for Le Corbusier day 18’. The brief demanded to respect the site which was the courtyard of Chandigarh College of Architecture. The design had to be subtle enough to be a background for the speakers on stage and yet had to speak of the philosophies of Corbusier. It was decided to take inspiration from the robust GRID of the city of Chandigarh and in a very abstract fashion, represent it was the backdrop for the stage.
03
HOSPITAL DESIGN
25-30
The 8th semester studio design problem, hospital design, poised a unique problem. However, the problem of managing the areas turned out to be a vigorous exercise as a design student. The design started with the question; can hospitals become healing environments through design?
04
MARGIN
31-36
The briefs desired to transform a public space to a more gender-sensitive space and hence to create a center for youth. The idea was to move beyond the superďŹ cial by engaging the audience psychologically. The two dimensional newspaper panel spoke about gender sensitive issues and stigmas hence rendering the mind to break free of the stereotypes that exists in our minds.
05
PRISONERS OF CHOICE This project is all about looking for question within the questions. When the architecture around you evolves from the utmost adulterated ideas - What are you? What are you not? We lust for a change and that change is an indispensable faculty. From the architecture in the mind to the drawings in a space plane and the outcomes in three dimensional space All these become the pure parallel projections of the mind.
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Museum Urban Lab and Library RTI office Open air cinema Mandi Interpretation zone Canteen
Jaisalmer has its own unique vocabulary. The city complex grain is resonates to the harsh climatic condition that its subjected to.
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THAR . HABITAT . FORUM
The thesis Thar Habitat Forum aims to find the intersection of architecture, technology, culture and environment by selecting a region in a cultural landscape that is subjected to extreme climatic conditions. The selected urban environment is the city of Jaisalmer. Through a site specific approach, the intention was to respond to the past while looking at the present needs and future challenges that create an impact on both micro and macro levels. The thesis was also heavily influenced by the unreleased project - Fun Palace by architect Cedric Price, which was in short a university for the streets. So the idea was to create a Fun Palace for the city of Jaisalmer that would respond to the contemporary culture of the city. After through research and site visits, the program of the complex was finalized to be a hybrid topology consisting of :
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JAISALMER AND THE SITE
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It is the largest district of Rajasthan and 3rd largest district by territorial region in the country, hugged on the west & southwest by the Pakistani border. The medieval city of Jaisalmer lies in the heart of the Thar Desert. Due to its characteristic yellow sandstone architecture, it is nicknamed the “The Golden City”. The city is crowned by the Jaisalmer Fort. Some other attractions include, the Jain temples, Havelis, Gadsisar Lake, Bada Bagh, etc. The city is a World Heritage site and is a major tourist attraction. At present, the economy of the city is driven by the tourist industry. Various festivals have become a part of the contemporary culture of this city. The Desert Festival and Ragasthan Music Festival are two events that witness humongous crowd during their three day celebration. An interesting part of the city is its peri-urban area, which is dominated by wind farms. Looking at the current trends, it’s evident that the cultural landscape of the city is going through a radical change.
TOP LEFTThar desert occupies almost the entire Rajasthan state. Jaisalmer lies right in the heart of the Thar desert. BOTTOMThe site is marked in red. The nollis diagram of the city reveals the compact nature of the city.
AMAN KALRA PORTFOLIO 2019
The site lies in one of the major nodes of the city: right in front of the Gadisar Pol - the historic gateway to the city and the gate that connects the Gadisar lake to the city. In other words the site is sandwiched between the Gadisar Pol and the Gadisar lake. The site consisted of two fragments, the left side consisting of a tourist information centre, a dump yard, RTI office and a police station. The right hand side is an urban Park which is a road island. However, the functions of the site didn’t quite suit its location. For eg. even though the park was right next to the police station, it was home to drug peddlers and thieves. Hence some of the functions were relocated into better suited locations in the city. The police station was relocated on an empty government plot very close to the site, facing the highway. Behind the site are motor repair shops, schools and hotels. In front of the site are cremation grounds, a school, shops and the lake which is a popular tourist attraction. Hawkers are present in great numbers around the site which disturb the image of the city. Two fragments of the site.
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Model depicting the urban fabric of Jaisalmer. In white is the site.
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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
MEGASTRUCTURE The theory of Megastructure highlighted the importance of blurring the lines of urban design and planning with architecture. Also, it helped figure out how to unify different programs using modular structures. But most importantly it helped understand the need of temporality of social spaces in urban environments. A number of case examples such as the Fun Palace, Pompidou Centre, German Pavilion for 67’ Expo, etc. were studied to understand the theory in detail.
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EVENT, SPACE AND MOVEMENT The theory by Bernard Tschumi helped decipher architecture from different vantage points. What was interesting about the theory was how it helped delineate architecture in three parts; event, space and movement. The disjunction helps in isolating the three fragments and then studying each one in detail. The theory helped in understanding all the case studies in depth.
CRITICAL REGIONALISM The theory helped figure out the politics of architecture which is often not considered in architecture schools. It helped understand the ground realities of the architecture process which in turn added to the justification of the design. Gandhi Samarak Sanghralaya, Hall of Nations, Indian Habitat Centre, Jawahar Kala Kendra and Panna Meena ka Kund were the case studies that helped understand the theory better.
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SITE TREATMENT
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AMAN KALRA PORTFOLIO 2019 Once the road form the Gadisar Pol to the Gadisar Chowk in pedestrianised, the two fragments of the site are integrated. The traffic is segregated for the heavy motor vehicles that enter the site from the highway, whereas the regular vehicles enter through the side entry. The Kund becomes the central element of the site which also becomes the congregation space for the users as well as an outdoor extension for the canteen. Narrow pathways keep the entire site shaded due to mutual shading of the buildings, and the open spaces are covered with a tensile roof. Therefore, the entire complex is united through the tensile structure, making it a megastructure. Since all the blocks are subterranean, they keep the blocks cool. Mandi promises the incoming of local users, while the rest of the complex invites the tourists as well as locals. The integration of both the user groups assures that the site is in use throughout the season, making the complex a true social space in the contemporary scenario. Also, since the trees are preserved, they become the secondary gathering spaces in the site itself.
RTI OFFICE
CANTEEN
LIBRARY AND URBAN LAB
KUND
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GADISAR PROL
EXISTING BASTION
INTERPRETATION ZONE
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LOK KENDRA
MUSEUM
MANDI
GADISAR CHOWK
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The mandi has squinches on its entrance acting as a buffer space that could be occupied by hawkers. The mandi works on two levels. The level underground is the permanent market, whereas the upper floor is covered by the tensile structure behaves as the temporary market.
WINDCATCHERS These perpendicular towers have a particular function. They catch the wind, make it cooler, which in turn cool the buildings. This lowered the heat loads of the buildings and makes the complex sustainable.
As one enters the complex, he gets under the tensile structure. A narrow corridor, marked by two windcatches leads to the cultural spaces of the complex.
AMAN KALRA PORTFOLIO 2019 MUSEUM GROUND FLOOR PLAN.
ARCHES All the built blocks follow a similar vocabulary of arches. This design decision has two sides to it; First, it resonates the historic culture of the city, second, since it’s easy to construct, it doesn’t require highly skilled labour for the task, which also means the labour from the adjacent villages get job opportunities for the project. Now, since the locals are involved in the construction, they are likely to have an attachment with the project. This would add to the social dimension of the project..
RIGHT One can witness the presence of tensile structures throught the streets of Jaisalmer. LEFT Arches form the basis of all the architecture in the city.
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The yellow hatch depicts the pavilion area, accessible to all. The buffer space is formed by the arcade which also becomes the seating space. The museum can be explored as one moves through the staircase which sits it its courtyard.
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Kund becomes the central attraction of the entire complex.
GARGOYLES These utilitarian elements which direct the surface runoff water to the kund also help balance the verticality of the windcatchers.
There are several functions of the kund-Performance space. -Outdoor seating for canteen. -Extention for Museum and Urban Lab. -Open air cinema
AMAN KALRA PORTFOLIO 2019 URBAN LAB AND LIBRARY GROUND FLOOR PLAN
PAVILION The ground floor of every block acts as a pavilion with a restricted access to the function that the block is supposed to serve. This makes the entire ground floor of the site a public space. A space where anyone of any age group or gender could spend quality time surrounded by the basic amenities. It also serves as a secondary social space right next to the Gadisar lake which often gets overcrowded in the tourist season.
RIGHT The Gadisar Lake was once the only source of water for the residents of Jaisalmer. It acts like an oasis in the desert. LEFT There are several hawkers around the site which disturbe the image of this beautiful city. These hawkers have been included in the design itself.
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The plan has similarity to the plan of the museum. One the first floor is teh library. On the underground floors are convertible spaces that form the Urban Lab.
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TENSILE STRUCTURE Being a social space, the site required an ephemeral experience. Tensile structures are visible throughout the city in open markets providing shade to the users. Hence, in the open areas of the site, these structures work well and integrated the site together.
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SUBTERRANEAN In areas where the temperature goes as high as 50 degrees, subterranean architecture works well due to the heat capacity of the earth. The temperature can be lowered upto 9 degrees just by building underground. This also adds to the experience of the user.
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ADOBE Since the blocks are subterranean, the earth that comes out can be used in making CSEB bricks. Using this construction technology would mean that the buildings are cooler and that they would last longer.
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WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS All the individual design elements when integrated together makes the complex a megastructure that responds to the contemporary culture of the city. Social spaces, often neglected by many, is a necessity. Thar Habitat Forum can be seen as a natural response to the hybrid cultures of contemporary times.
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BLUES . . LC 18
Blues LC18 was the stage design for Le Corbusier day 18’. The brief demanded to respect the site which was the courtyard of Chandigarh College of Architecture. The design had to be subtle enough to be a background for the speakers on stage and yet had to reflect the philosophies of Corbusier. It was decided to take inspiration from the robust GRID of the city of Chandigarh and in a very abstract fashion, represent it was the backdrop for the stage.
Axonometric view of one module
AMAN KALRA PORTFOLIO 2019
NED KAHN Kahn often re-creates dynamic wind currents – or turbulence, as he calls it – within controlled settings inside buildings. This gave the inspiration of a dynamic grid that would react to the air movement at the time of the event. Also since Corbusier would always take care of ventilation in his buildings, it made more sense to have an installation that would react to the wind.
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COURTYARD The CCA courtyard has one element that marks its presence; the red brick walls that its surrounded with. Since the brief was to respect the site, it was certain to respect the walls of the courtyard.
BLUE Pantone 3545 C is a colour that compliments the tone of brics in the courtyard. Hence the paper closest to the color was chosen for the installation.
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Computer generated iterations of how the installation would work with different wind velocities and directions.
The blue colour dominates the burnt brick background.
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1152 modules are fixed on 8 ply boards (4’ x 8’). The result is a dynamic pattern created with different shades of blue due to the unique orientation of each paper in effect to the way the paper panels react to the light and mimic the wind.
ABOVE The lighting design for the event. BELOW Aftermath of the installation.
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HOSPITAL . . DESIGN
The 8th semester studio design problem, hospital design, poised a unique problem. However, the problem of managing the areas turned out to be a vigorous exercise as a design student. The design started with the question; can hospitals become healing environments through design? After several case studies and visits, it became clear that such an aggressive design requires the services to be worked out in a fluent fashion. Another challenge was to have the building mark its presence as one moves through the highway(adjacent to which lies the site). Also, since the hospital was to cater two towns, Rajpura and Zirakpur, one had to figure out how to manage that population while segregating the circulation for different user groups.
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AREA STATEMENT
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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
The concept is simple. Once we divide the whole area into three fragments, we can easily segregate the different departments of the hospital easily. All that was required was to designate the departments as per the floor plates. Once that was done, it was only a matter of zoning the three fragments as per priority and hence the emergency becomes the first block, out patient dept. the second, and in patient the third. Due to this zoning the building aquires its unique form of a stepped builiding. Placing the building in the right orientation solved the problem of ventilation and light while the courtyards in between the blocks become the breathing spaces of the building.
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GROUND FLOOR PLAN
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Care was taken to make the complex a barrier free environment and hence the building is equipped with ramps and lifts wherever needed. The three blocks are integrated with two corridors, one on the front side and another on a middle which becomes a sky corridor. The purpose of these is to manage the circulation between the blocks.
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
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In the plans the major circulation area is married in the yellow hatch. The emergence department has its own separate entrance which shall remain open 24/7. Each block has its core in the same position so that it becomes easy for the user to decipher the building.
FOURTH FLOOR PLAN
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THIRD FLOOR PLAN
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MARGIN . . . .
The briefs desired to transform a public space to a more gendersensitive space and hence to create a center for youth. The idea was to move beyond the superďŹ cial by engaging the audience psychologically. The two dimensional newspaper panel spoke about gender sensitive issues and stigmas hence rendering the mind to break free of the stereotypes that exists in our minds.
Illustration depicting how in public spaces a newspaper panel catches the attention of people
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Margin is a newspaper on social issues and architecture. It deals with the stereotypes prevalent in the society. We curate conversations to tell a story about the role of architecture in today’s world. We make them available for you to do with as you please: to think, to talk about, to design with. Feel free to take them and run, mis-read and butcher. After all, they are only ideas. Margin takes the form of normal A1 sized papers that can also function as posters. Each newspaper has a theme and content is derived from a series of discussions, debates, interviews, and research into the spatial implications of epochal shifts presently occurring in the information industry. The issue focuses on gender sensitivity and the urban poor. It tries to camouflage architecture with these discussions which were originally triggered by the posters.
LEFT The idea was not only to spread the world in the physical space but also the virtual space. The combination of the two helps spread the message to all user groups. BELOW Margin in the sector 17 piazza.
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PRISONERS OF . . CHOICE
The brief of the competition challenged to question the idea of parallel projections and represent a city in an unconventional way. Chandigarh is the chosen city, since it has a very strong architectural character. The idea was fairly simple; it was all about finding questions within questions. The idea of parallel projects is explored to the core. Afterall, the power of architecture resides in the drawings of the architect, which were ones mere ideas. Prisoners of choice revolves around a situation were the city reaches its epitome.
LEFT Flexibility of the grid binds the layers so intricately that ecosystems remain intertwined to serve the residents of utopia RIGHT REALITY - FICTION DIGITAL - ANALOGUE - PHYSICAL VIRTUAL - NATURAL - ARTIFICIAL SUPERNATURAL - CONSCIOUS SUBCONSCIOUS All of the realms unified by the robust grid
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This project is all about looking for question within the questions. When the architecture around you evolves from the utmost adulterated ideas - What are you? What are you not? We lust for a change and that change is an indispensable faculty. From the architecture in the mind to the drawings in a space plane and the outcomes in three dimensional space - All these become the pure parallel projections of the mind. This change brings in the question of apotheosis and ultimately the reality - that is where you look for the real answer. ‘Manifestos of Architecture’ are the compilation of selected excerpts from my personal diary. These excerpts explain my journey in the quest of becoming an ‘architect’. A journey marked by a spectrum of emotions arising due to the lust for truth. And hence the expedition unravels the various questions leading to an obvious dilemma. Each chapter revolves around a question leading to a paradox. This paradox filters the architect’s understanding of the known and the unknown. Rationality triggers the thought of right and wrong, fiction and reality whereas everything coexists in unison. A man named Marc finds himself in “The library of babel” and comes across ‘Manifestos for Architecture’ that has not been read ever before. Despite no views, the title of the book enamors him so much that he begins reading it. With each new chapter and each new idea he is inspired and taken to an all new world of his imagination. Religion, economy, politics, and even the first world problems are obliterated. Ultimately he realises UTOPIA and DYSTOPIA exist in parallel.
FROM TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT Radient city - Le Corbusier Spatioal city - Yona Friedman Dadaism poster Poster by Bernard Tschumi Plug-in city - Archigram Continuous monument - Superstudio
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AMAN KALRA PORTFOLIO 2019
A RCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO 2014 - 2019
AMAN KALRA