Professional Portfolio by Arkdev Bhattacharyya

A COMPILATION OF WORKS professional portfolio

in the field of architecture and design

PERSONAL INFORMATION NAME:

Arkdev Bhattacharyya

PROFESSION:

Architectural Designer

D.O.B:

16.01.1997

CONTACT:

+91 9923040365

EMAIL ID:

arkdevb.work@gmail.com

INSTAGRAM:

EDUCATION AND TRAINING CENTRE POINT SCHOOL, KATOL ROAD, NAGPUR

2003 - 2015

SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT AND ARCHITECTURE, BORIVALI, MUMBAI

2015 - 2021

ABIN DESIGN STUDIO, HINDUSTAN PARK, KOLKATA

Nov 2018 Mar 2019

(upto grade 12)

(bachelor of architecture)

(intern architect)

INTERESTS AND HOBBIES CRITIQUING CINEMA THEATRE READING WRITING SKETCHING AND ILLUSTRATING CHESS

@baba_bangaali

SOFTWARES AND SKILLS

LANGUAGES

AUTOCAD SKETCHUP PHOTOSHOP INDESIGN ILLUSTRATOR RHINOCEROS (basic) SONY VEGAS PRO MICROSOFT OFFICE

ENGLISH HINDI BANGLA MARATHI

FILM-MAKING AND EDITING BASIC PHOTOGRAPHY SKETCHING & DRAFTING BASIC CARPENTRY AND WOODWORK

PUBLICATIONS 2016 2016 2016 2017 2017 2017 2020 2021

EXHIBITIONS KOCHI MUZIRIZ STUDENT BIENNALE SHANGHAI BIENNALE COVID GLOSSSARY, SEA BEHIND THE SCREENS, SEA

2016 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2017 2018 2018 2020 2020

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2016 2017 2021 2021

jr. architect at STUDIO TESSERA, MUMBAI

dec 2021-apr 2022

asst. production designer BASED IN MUMBAI

april 2022 - april 2023

CONTENTS

PRODUCTION DESIGN

COLLEGE WORK

01 | MC DONALD’S CHICKEN BIG MAC | ad film

01 | CINEMA SPACE

02 | UBER AUTO | ad film

02 | CINEMA STREET

03| LAKME | ad film

03 | CLOUD 2020

04 | TANISHQ SUPER WOMAN | ad film 05| GLOW AND LOVELY | ad film

04 | THE KOCHI BIENNALE (2016-17) 05 | THE SHANGHAI BIENNALE (2017) 06| OTHER PROJECTS

STUDIO TESSERA 01 | HOUSE ON A ROCK

MISCELLANEOUS 01| THEATRE AND STAGE 02| DIGITAL ILLUSTRATIONS

PRODUCTION DESIGN 01 | McDONALD’S LOCATION: MUMBAI

SET 1: PRESS CONFERENCE STAGE SET 2: CAFETERIA

DESCRIPTION: Toned down colours with not much contrast fused with the brand colours to make modern day spaces for a McDonald’s cafeteria and a press conference stage. ON SCREEN

CLOSE UP

LIMBO SETUP

FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE SET

FINAL CAFE SET

IMAGE REFERENCES

ON SCREEN

3D CAFE MODEL

02 | UBER AUTO

LOCATION: MUMBAI

SET 1: CLUB ENTRANCE

DESCRIPTION: A posh club entrance in an elite part of the city. The look and feel is dominated by neon lighta and minimal yet modern aesthetic elements.

FINAL CLUB SET

FACADE/TENTACLE REFERENCES

ENTRANCE REFERENCE

ON SCREEN

TENTACLE OPTION 1

TENTACLE OPTION 2

ENTRANCE REFERENCE

SET 2: BEDROOM

DESCRIPTION: A lower-middle class lived in space having an Islamic look and feel and propped with Islamic elements. Diffused lighting used to accentuate the cozy, lived-in environment.

BEDROOM LOOK AND FEEL

FINAL BEDROOM SET

COLOUR PALETTE

ON SCREEN

FINAL BEDROOM SET (OPPOSITE SIDE)

BEDROOM SKETCHUP VIEW

03 | LAKME

LOCATION: MUMBAI

SET 1: BEDROOM WITH DRESSING TABLE

MIRROR REFERENCE 1

SKETCHUP MODEL

MIRROR REFERENCE 2

DRESSING TABLE REFERENCE

DRESSING TABLE PROPPING

SET 2: ARCHITECT’S OFFICE

TABLE PROPPING 1

SKETCHUP MODEL

OFFICE LOOK AND FEEL

TABLE PROPPING 2

04 | TANISHQ - SUPER WOMAN LOCATION: MUMBAI

LIVING ROOM SET-UP

SET 1: LIVING ROOM

DESCRIPTION: A lived in, higher-middle class living room which is spacious yet cozy. Modern aesthetics with decent colour schemes and indian print styles.

ON SCREEN

LIVING ROOM VIEW 2

LIVING ROOM VIEW 3

SET 1: BEDROOM

DESCRIPTION: Similar characteristics as of the living room, with propping done keeping in mind the privacy that the space demands.

BEDROOM SET-UP

SKETCHUP VIEW

ON SCREEN

SKETCHUP PLAN

05 | GLOW AND LOVELY LOCATION: MUMBAI

SET: FRONTAL COURTYARD

DESCRIPTION: House having a clean look and subdued decor with elements having brand colours used as colour pops.

HOUSE ENTRANCE SET-UP

ON SCREEN

HOUSE ENTRANCE SKETCHUP VIEW

REFERENCES

STUDIO TESSERA 01 | HOUSE ON A ROCK AND EXTENSION LOCATION: ALIBAUGH

House on a rock gets its name from the steep basalt stone hillock it is perched on. The house sits snugly along the slope forming a series of built and landscaped terraces, a single sloping Mangalore tile roof covers the structure. The simultaneous stepping and staggering of the house plan maximizes light, ventilation and views all around. The house doubles up as a retreat and ashram. It has three enclosed spaces-the living area, kitchen and bedroom, the dining is a semi covered built in space located at the heart of the house. The rooms are compact while the porticos lavish, considering that most of life on the forested hill will be spent reading, writing, and meditating in the semi open spaces.

COLLEGE WORK 01 | CINEMA SPACE

SEMESTER 09 | THESIS RESEARCH

1.1: INTRODUCTION The technology of cinema has fundamentally resituated humanity’s notion of physical reality. We inevitably exist within two realms today: the physical realm shaped by architecture and building and another one visually experienced and inhabited through cinema. These realms closely resemble each other, even while they are produced quite differently. We experience the cinematic realm and extract out of them, meanings that are structured by our experiences in the physical realm. We keep referring to the cinematic experiences to shape our own perspectives to understand the world around us.

1.2: OBJECTIVE The thesis systematically unfolds the mechanics of production and consumption of cinematic spaces and compiles the impact of cinematic spaces on the viewer. It lays out the role of the cinematic devices: the mise-en-scene and the montage, in making the space in a film “cinematic”.

THE THREE FRAME DIAGRAM OF CINEMATIC PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION

1.3: THE CINEMATIC DEVICES Space and moments in cinema are created predominantly through two cinematic devices: mise-en-scene and montage. These devices are responsible for bringing out multiple emotions, information and visual meanings in a film. MISE-EN-SCENE: A set of elements hinged around the narrative and put together in a shot to create an experience on the screen. MONTAGE: A film editing technique in which a series of shots (mise-en-scenes) are put together to compress or expand space, time and information and create a broader experience through a scene or a sequence. 1.4: MODUS OPERANDI To create the mise-en-scene and to have an impact through montage, certain film aspects are incorporated within the film scene. These aspects are responsible for producing the cinematic life at different proximities from the physical life produced by architecture. To understand the production of cinematic space, it becomes essential to study how these aspects function to design a specific film shot. A set of 8 films were chosen to study these cinematic aspects. The table on the right shows each film adjacent to the corresponding cinematic aspect. The scenes taken from these films accentuate one aspect each in the best possible manner.

1.5.1: THE FRAME: PATHER PANCHALI

1.6: CONCLUSION

The frame composes the elements of the shot across the screen, along the plane of frame and the plane of depth, arranging the elements on the screen in a particular manner. The framing also establishes relationships between the elements as well as between the elements and the viewer, based on their proximities from the frame.

The cinematic aspects that build the mise-en-scene and montage are used to produce cinematic spaces, which generate strong emotions and meanings that are semiotically consumed by the viewer.

Hence the kids running away from the catkin field to approach the distant train portrays the larger idea of the arrival of the industrial city in a future which these kids (Apu, since Durga stumbles while running, hinting at yet another upcoming event in the film) will one day inhabit, leaving behind the present life that is surrounded by agriculture and farming, represented by the dense catkins. This scene has a much stronger impact on the viewer because, unlike the rest of the film, where the shots are framed at a very human scale, here the frame suddenly increases the scale to a gigantic size, the magnitude of which overwhelms the viewer, creating a larger-than-life cinematic experience.

Thus each of these cinematic aspects is instrumental in building cinematic impact on the viewer. A combined effect of them all produces a different reality which we understand as the cinematic. Together they aim to accentuate the meanings the shot/scene intends to convey to the viewer. They do so by fundamentally two ways: • Reorienting our visualization of space by generating meanings through mise-en-scene. • Developing new spatial characteristics by sculpting time in a film through montage The cinematic space thus gets constructed with a purpose to maximize the emotional impact of the shot/scene on the viewer. This creates a vivid experience for the viewer that is molded by the cinematic developments in space as well as in time, which in turn changes the way we perceive the physical reality around us. The concepts of mise-en-scene and montage can be taken forward and put into architectural use where the mise-en-scene allows diverse programs encouraging human participation to come in together and the montage systematically ties these programs together, creating possibilities of navigating through them.

SITE PLAN

02 | CINEMA STREET

SEMESTER 10 | THESIS DESIGN | SITABULDI, NAGPUR

The Cinema Street is an intervention that strengthens this relationship between the realms of cinema and architecture in the physical world. It uses the spaceproducing devices of cinema to create a physical space, navigating through which, one experiences and interacts with the city itself. The intervention situates itself in Sitabuldi, Nagpur; a zone packed with a dense traffic network and the recently introduced overhead metro, which although create new possible sections through the city, but act as mere transit corridors. It is here that architecture refers back to the ideas of cinema, vision and movement to introduce a parallel human edge to these new intersections of the city. Cinema uses mise-en-scene and montage to create space and tie them together in a film. Similarly, the intervention brings together multiple programs that are experienced and bound through the pedestrian movement only. The Street allows the pedestrians to visually experience various “cinematic moments” which exist within the city but are often overlooked due to the sheer pace of vehicular movement everywhere. These are the ‘cinematic’ moments through which the city and the people interact with each other in multiple ways thus establishing a strong relationship between the city and the public.

THE STRATEGICAL MONTAGE

DESIGN PLAN

LONG SECTION

SECTION THROUGH AMPHITHEATRE

SECTION THROUGH CHILDREN’S PLAY AREA

SECTION THROUGH RECREATIONAL ZONE

SECTION THROUGH KIOSKS

KIOSKS

SHOPS AND STORES

RECREATIONAL ZONE

STRUCTURAL ARCHES UNDER THE CINEMA STREET

1. PUBLIC SEATING 2. KIOSKS

8. PUBLIC GARDEN 9. RECREATIONAL ZONE

3. PUBLIC TOILETS 4. STALLS

10. KIDS’ PLAY AREA 11. KIOSKS

5. PUBLIC GARDEN 6. AMPHITHEATRE

12. PUBLIC TOILET 13. PUBLIC SEATING

MOMENT 1: THE METRO GATE

THE CINEMATIC MOMENTS The Cinema Street also interacts to the City with certain moments that get created when one moves through the Street. At points along the Street, it frames certain activities//occurrings/moments that happen throughout the city, but which we often fail to notice. A parallel can be drawn between these moments that build the city to the cinematic moments that build a film.

4 2

MOMENTS PLAN

MOMENT 3: THE TRAFFIC MONTAGE

MOMENT 4: THE METRO CLOSE-UP

MOMENT 2: THE BACKDROP CITY

MOMENT 5: THE REALMS OF THE MALL

03 | CLOUD 2020 SEMESTER 9 | URBAN STUDIES | R-NORTH WARD, MUMBAI

The emergence and continuous development of cities are largely governed by natural systems and human interventions. The two factors continuously come together in multiple ways creating newer layers of natural and man-made systems. Along with these, a major and very recent phenomenon has been instrumental in shaping the cities: the introduction of digital technology. As a class project, the emergence and continuous restructuring of the city of Mumbai were looked at in three phases, categorised as the three strata: Stratum 1: Natural Systems The emergence of the city is looked at through the natural systems. Productive activities like agriculture, railways, mining etc centered around these natural systems without disturbing them. As a part of this, we as a group studied the migration and subsequent habitation of the Kunbi Tribe in the Mumbai salsette region and created a short documentary on the same. Stratum 2: Economical Order The introduction and subsequent growth of the industries and mass transit systems shifted the city’s development from the natural systems to the dominant economic order. The development and growth of the city were now based on government policies, development plans, town planning acts etc. The group studied how the economical order affected the various aspects of the unbuilt elements of the city. STRATUM 1: THE KUNBIS IN THE BOMBAY SALSETTE

CULTIVATED LANDS

FORESTS

MUDFLATS AND PONDS

STRATUM 2: GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON OPEN SPACES

Stratum 3: The Formation of Cloud Studying the previous two strata in detail, we estimated the present condition of the R-North ward of Mumbai. Pairing this with the rapid development in the field of digital technology, we predicted further innovative developments where the advanced technologies would solve certain problems and issues that have arisen due to the rapid development of the city. Thus, at this point, we entered the Cloud, an urban future where digital technology becomes a crucial factor in the growth of the city. The urban future was predicted at three intervals that were roughly 15 years apart: 2020, 2034 and 2050.

PLAN 2020

PLAN 2034

PLAN 2050

Of the many zones that were identified and thought of as potential sites for the Cloud interventions, one was at the northernmost part of the R-North ward where a dense mangrove forest exists next to the Dahisar river, at the end of the Kandarpada area. The mangroves have been steadily declining as their forested area is being reclaimed time and again, causing intense flooding in the nearby settlements and slums. The DP of 2034 stated a further reclamation by proposing a transit road through the mangrove forest. Hence, as group work, the intervention was thought of as a Mangrove Park, along with reimagining the built forms of the slum in order to make it safe from the flooding of the Dahisar river, spread in three phases from 2020 to 2050.

MANGROVE PARK 2034

2020: Rethinking the present condition of the slums, introducing new systems that tackle the flooding problems and adding internal pathways. 2034: The Mangrove Park is opened to the public, consisting of narrow walkways, tall watchtowers and small information kiosks. 2050: A technically advanced Mangrove Park, including underwater pods, flying drones and connecting itself to a newly developed transit network in the ward.

MANGROVE PARK 2050

04 | THE KOCHI BIENNALE (2016-17) INSTALLATIONS | NEIGHBOURHOOD STUDIES | MUMBAI-KOCHI

THE GUJARATI STREET KOCHI, KERALA: An axonometric map was created as a result of a weeklong study of the settlement known as The Gujarati Street in Kochi, Kerala. The map highlighted the builtforms and the vegetations in the settlement and indicated the daily life of the inhabitants.

THE ITENARANT HOME KUNCHI KURVE NAGAR, KALINA, SANTA CRUZ (E), MUMBAI: A Memory Box was derived as an installation representing the history, economy, livelihood and the wickerwork practice of the women of Kunchi Kurve Nagar in Kalina, Mumbai.

05 | THE SHANGHAI BIENNALE (2017) INSTALLATIONS | NEIGHBOURHOOD STUDIES | SHANGHAI, CHINA

SITE: MAIN MARKET STREET, ZHOUJHIPAI ROAD, SHANGHAI The Street of Crates: Due to the increasing number of crates in the shopfronts on either side of the street through the market in Shanghai’s Zhoujhipai Road, the street itself has become narrower, making movement difficult. Thus the design idea was to reshape the crates which are a major unit of the shops so that a wider part of the street could cater to public movement. Thus the crates were designed to be collapsible making them convenient for the sellers as well as the walkers who could now get a wider space to navigate.

MARKET ELEVATIONS

DIAGRAMS OF SHOPS, MOVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

THE NEW CRATES

FINAL PRESENTATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS 01 | THEATRE AND STAGE GupShup (2019): adapted from Neil Simon’s RUMOURS Credit: Second Lead Actor DusTak (2020): adapted from Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE Credits: Director, Scriptwriter, Prop Designer, Voice Artist, Poster Designer

Scenes from the play GupShup (July 2019)

DusTak rehearsals

DusTak prop design

DusTak final performance | 14th Feb, 2020

02 | DIGITAL ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration for the Birth Cenetary of Satyajit Ray

Alternate Film Poster : Shatranj Ke Khilari

Alternate Film Poster : Kanchenjungha

Logo Design for a Consultancy Firm in Nagpur

Quiz poster for the Nagpur Quiz Club

Lockdown and Lyin’ Around