COVER PAGE
ART IN TRANSIT Urvika Chhabra Bachelor of design Public Space Design Srishti Institute of Art , Design and Technology 2015-2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to Srishti Institute of Art , Design and Technology for providing me with an excellent atmosphere for my research , proposal and execution. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my project mentors - Amitabh Kumar , Arzu Mistry, Abhiyan Humane , Shivani Seshadri, Aastha Chauhan , Aditya Bharadwaj, Gaurav Singh , Siddhant Shetty, who have constantly and persuasively conveyed a
spirit of adventure in regard to research and a completely new vision on Public spaces. Without their supervision and constant help it would have not been possible. I am grateful to my classmates who challened me to see the potential of my work at every step. Their advice was pivotal in my prpject’s development.
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CONTENT Project brief My position
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
Site location Mapping Food Mapping
IMMERSION PROCESS Site exploration Interviews Literature review Case studies Insights
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PROPOSAL Initial Concept Form Exploration
CURATORIAL FRAMEWORK
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Introduction to curatorial themes The Otherland Potential sites Building the model Curatorial Map Concept evolution Inspiration Board Form exploration
MATERIAL Material Board Material Exploration Final Concept
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FORM Form explorations Final form
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Prototyping drawings Reflections
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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MY POSITION
BRIEF The metro within this metropolis, is a semi - public space that offers opportunities for congregation and social networks. Where a diversity of people come together with a common purpose of getting from one point to
another. The Art in Transit Collective is interested in a trans disciplinary framework that engages through art and design practices with the ‘metro’ as a symbol of a changing city.
My interest in art in transit has been primarily to understand how to design spaces, understanding the movement of people in a transit space and the effect that aesthetics has in making a space livelier and memorable. It also happens to lie around my past transit experiences around Europe where the stations felt comfortable and the aesthetics played a major role in defining
the stations level of comfort. Through this project, my aim is to spatially enhance the look and feel of the station and provide an atmosphere, which is different from the existing underground metro experience.
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Site map Food mapping Mapping Initial Site visits
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
Location of Vidhan Soudha metro station
Location of Cubbon Park metro station
Art in Transit is spread over the underground metro stations of Cubbon park and Vidhan Soudha
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Cubbon Park Metro Station
General post office
Vidhan Soudha Metro Station
Vidhan Soudha
HAL Office
Chinnaswamy stadium Karnataka High Court
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THE UNDERGROUND
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MAPPING
Contrast in architectural style between Kasturba Road and BR Ambedkar Road
Understanding the site and its neighbourhood Contrast in traffic and stress levels between Kasturba Road and BR Ambedkar Road
Vittal Mallya Road and the bylanes are residential areas. Kasturba Road is a blend of Commercial modern structures and Colonial Government buildings.
Insights The Green canopy extends from Chinnaswamy road up till Vidhan Soudha.
Office spaces are concentrated in Minsk Square. Residential Park Educational Buildings Commercial spaces Government buildings
The road is wide on BR Ambedkar Road and narrows down at Kasturba Road.
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FOOD MAPPING
FIRST SITE VISIT
Understand the users and the food culture around the site
At this stage, I was excited about this idea of whats aboveground and underground and how one experiences this transition of entering these different levels in terms of space and light.
Map indicating footfall at different time zones. This exercise gave me an insight into the various activites of the vendors and draw conclusions towards their method of waste disposal , cart security , migration pattern , stock market and the dailt footfall of the people around the site along with the potential users of the metro.
Map indicating the proximity of the variety of street vendors. Location : BR Ambedkar Road
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Research frames Site Exploration Interviews Secondary Research
IMMERSION PROCESS
RESEARCH FRAMES The city - past , present and future
Experience of transit
Transit as a social network
The Garden City. The Silicon City. The Smart City. The Pensioners Paradise. The Exploding City. The Garbage City, The Exclusive City, The World Class City. The Pub City. The Young City. Traffic Jam City. The Fastest Growing City.
The ‘transitional’ nature of human society has altered our interaction with the physical, social and cultural world we inhabit.
The “metro” has become a default commons, giving us the opportunity to rethink the idea of the commons in the city today. A semi-public space, albeit paid and monitored, the experience of the daily travel offers nodes of collective gathering and brief pause allowing the opportunity to connect with other travelers before embarking on a journey.
This frame offers the opportunity to explore the various layers of Bangalore’s transient identity, be it the past collective memories of the city, one’s present varied experiences of the city and the diverse and competing aspirations of this city. It further explores and investigates if the metro can become the connective tissue between the past, present and the future of the city.
This frame provides a platform to explore human journey in all its facets- exploring and explicating memories and narratives, politics of migration, replacement and displacement, public space as an artifact, journey as an experience of the self, and technology as a form of mediation+connection across space and time.
This frame provides an opportunity to think about transit as a social network in perhaps one of the only socioeconomic democratic space available in the city
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SITE EXPLORATION
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Understanding the architecture around the site Why has the use of glass increased ? How is glass used in interior spaces? What is the main purpose of glass ? What does the use of glass indicate about Bangalore ? What kind of glass is used as a facade?
The building materials around the station change from brick to glass facade walls.
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LITERATURE REVIEW INTERVIEWS Architects in Bangalore Mathew and Ghosh Achitects Sathyaprakash Varanashi Parvati Ranjit Naik
Mathew and Ghosh architects Glass is seen as a quick solution to create curtain walls
Of the many articles, books, case studies that I imersed myself in, these are the few that really helped defined my understanding of the evolution of glass as a material.
It is used in smaller interior spaces to make it look bigger. It is used to create partition in workspaces. The right use of glass can control the heat it reflects. The Background in Bangalore : Architecture and critical resistance in a new modernity
Parvathi
Glass can facilitate natural light into a space. Toughened and laminated glass is mostly used as facades.
Sathyaprakash Varanashi
The extensive use of glass as facades is making some pockets of bangalore hotter than the other parts. Extensive use of glass also indicates the increase in climate controlled spaces.
This article by Prem Chandravakar discusses the architectural style in Bangalore post the 1950’s.The 1950’s saw a burst of historical revivalism with the construction of Vidhan Soudha . The 1960’s revivalism had run its course , and with Chandigarhs influence , a Corbusian Idiom was soon established in the imagination and architectural language of architects asa symbol of modernity. This was soon realised in the Visesvaraya Towers built by Corbusier. The 21st century
saw globalisation which allowed emerging segments of the indian economy to secede from the local economy and orient towards the global. The information technology company with became more concerned with how its campus is percieved in California than the view from across the street. Hence newly available materials of structual glazing like glass became more and more prominent and it was seen as a quick solution for producing the imagery of global desires.
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GLASS STRUCTURES IN BANGALORE
Citadels of Glass : The story of India’s new suburban landscape
St Mary’s Basilica
Lal Bagh
This book by Tathagata Chhaterji informed me further about the Indian cities including Bangalore which have been going through dramatic transformations due to economic reforms in the early 1990s . From this book , I also got an understanding of the various factors that have shaped the city the way they are.
Though the usage of glass has increased in the current time , the transparency of this material is exploited fully to illuminate spaces.The reflective illusion of light bouncing its surface is transitory. Brigade Towers
UB City
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GLASS AS A MATERIAL TYPES OF GLASSES
National grand theatre of China, Paul Andreu
Easily shaped and installed
Basque Health Department Headquarters , Bibao, Coll Barreau Arquitectos
Louvre Palace , Paris, I.M Pei
It gives the building the ability to change, move and to create certain environments with the change in light.
Transparency and translucency of glass gives an aesthetic quality to architecture.
It can bend , reflect , transmit and absorb light
Heat treated glass
Opaque Spandrel glass
Coated glass
Hand blown glass
Laminated glass
Patterned glass
Insulated glass
Tinted glass
Wire glass
Fully tempered glass
Acrylic glass
Mirrored glass
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GLASS USED FOR VASTNESS
GLASS USED AS LIGHTING
Creative lighting fixtures and light as an artistic medium both have the power to influence rider’s moods , satisfaction an sense of place. Kaohsiun’s MRT system in Taiwan is a great example of how a work of art can use light to enliven a public transit space.It features 4500 brightly colored glass panels , commuters pass through this busy station under its warm glow while visitors stop to marvel at the beauty of the swirling scene. Formosa Boulevard Metro station, Taiwan
Through the reflective canopy, the levels of the metro are visually linked reflecting the outside inwards and the inwards outside making the station look larger. Riyadh Metro Station
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INSIGHTS
Initital ideas Form explorations
PROPOSAL Evolution of built idenity of Bangalore through glass.
Material
Metaphorical Symbol of Global desire
Functional
Solution
Partitions
Fast construction
Vastness
Illuminate spaces Shield from dust and climate
Disadvantage Affect on climate
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INITIAL IDEAS ON SITE
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On our first visit of site, certain ideas sprouted up at the Entry - Exits and the corners of the station. There was this constant thought of exaggerating the underground enclosed horizontal expanse of the station.This gave me an understanding of the possible spaces I could look at.
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INITIAL CONCEPT Metro station being an underground space is a shifting experience of moving between an open space to an enclosed space and natural light to artificial light. My earlier ideas involved being situated at the entry exit stairways of the station by creating an illusion of vastness and illuminate spaces.
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CURATORIAL THEMES Aesthetics and aspirations
Participative networks
The traveller
The Otherland
The relationship between the intervention and the city is prounounced both in form and concept.
This theme assesses the city through its various systems. It is anchored around ideas of community and participation.
This theme engages with the idea of transience and the figure of the traveller.
This theme looks at addressing the underground as an entity. It attempts to simulate and experience using whimsies , fantasies , perceptions and metaphors that displaces one from the existing physical environment, in a way shifting reality and creating and alternate for the people passing through.
THE OTHERLAND The otherland as a group curated individual concepts through various mapping exercises by creating word associations.
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CURATORIAL MAPS The cluster as a whole was divided into curaotiral themes. Otherland as a theme chose to work with Entry and exit transient spaces by creating a visual cue for the fantastical experience of the metro.
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POTENTIAL SITES Exploring the other possible sites , I decided to work in Cubbon Park metro station at the corners and turning points of the Entry- Exit passages. These corner spaces would then become a point of focus through highlighted lighting.
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CHOSEN SITE This specefic site out of all the other sites has been chosen since this corner is an extended space and doesnt hamper the movement of the traveller. This particular space does not have any function and would not in the future . It also provides an interesting perpective view to play with illusion and create a focal point.
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BUILDING MODEL The process of building the site models helped me visualise the space better and made me understand the movement of the traveller along with the scale of the space.
CONCEPT EVOLUTION After being divided into the Curatorial themes , my concept evolved further into exaggerating spaces in the underground metro station by creating an illusion of vastness. It engaged people with the shifting experience of moving between an open space to an enclosed space and play with one perception of such a space.
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INSPIRATION BOARD The room for all colours , 1999 , Olafur Eliasson .
The light inside , 1999 , James Turrell , The Museum of Fine arts , Houston.
Feelings are facts , 2010 , Olafur Eliasson
Dom Bosco Church, Brazil, Carlos Alberto Naves, 1963
Untitled
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MATERIAL BOARD Further since I was talking about transparency, transclucency and reflections, I decided to experiment in terms of materials with different kinds of textured glasses primarily fluted , Sparkled and etched.
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MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS
To understand the reflective nature of the glass , I experimented with various glasses and acrylic sheets to see how the shadows are casted . This also gave me an understanding on the placement of the light source and how i could layer sheets to bring various effects.
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MATERIAL EXPLORATIONS IN MODEL
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These experiments were carried out using acrylic mirrors and textured glass.The reflective nature of the miror along with the reaction to a light source created interesting illusions. The light that reflects back from the mirror gets scattereted. By doing these experiments , I learnt that mirror can be an alternative of glass and could create interesting patterns through light.
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After experimenting with various kinds of glasses and acrylics for my installation , I settled on using glass since the shadows generated by them were very different from its apperance and the light passed through it clearly. The glasses used in these explorations are toughened along with 3.5 mm thickness and vary from Fluted , etched , sparkle.
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LIGHT OBSERVATIONS Through my light experiments , I made certain observations. Light when passed through a 45 degree angle on a mirror , gets scattereted. When it passes directly from front of it , it gets reflected back. Furthermore , If the light passes through a transculcent glass , the shadows are more prominent.
WHAT DO I WANT IN MY FORM ? Experience Create a calm and immersive experience. An ambience that would effect the mood of the traveller. Create a disconnect with a change in light One can walk through it. Light is not a tool ot enable vision but an experience.
Physical Use different kinds of glasses Optical illusion Reflections from textured glass Colour All surfaces are effected Wash of light
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FINAL CONCEPT Glass as a material shows the transition of Built Identity of Bangalore. Its transparent nature is exploited fully to illuminate spaces. In context to the metro station , this material is a metaphor of this identity and the altering perceptions that it creates with the change in light. My aim is to manipulate the experience of light in this underground artificially lit space.
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FORM ITERATIONS
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FORM VISUALISATIONS
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Prototype
STEP 1
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
Use the exisiting grid pattern and recreate Mild Steel grid to fit in textured glass panels at alternative sqaure grids to get the desired effect.
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STRUCTURE
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PROCESS
Checking ths reflection of the chosen glass
Placing the glass in the grid
Suspending the structure on a heighted plane
Experimenting with 30 Watt LED Reflections of the glass on the walls Floorlight by placing it at different when the light source is right on the top. angles
Reflections of the glass on the walls when the light source is placed close to the glass.
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Challenges faced The light does not reach beyond 6’ from the ceiling because of the low intensity of the light source. The form does not give the desired effect.
STEP 2 Textured glass sheet
Coloured Acrylic sheets
It is a static form.
Obeservations Reflections of the glass when the light source is kept at an angle of 45 degrees. The shadow of the textured glass is different from its apperance and falls diagnolly on the wall. The light source should be atleast 2’ from the glass to get this desired effect. This effect was observed when the glass was convered by a blue coloured reflective acrylic film .
Burried Square uplighters
My form developed further where I decided to play with levels and use textured glass along with acrylic glass. Since my earlier form was static , this form looked at change in light with respective to time. There were three kinds of lights being functional at different intervals - Cove in the ceiling, Uplighters on the floor and LED floodlight from above the false ceiling. Through this form , I wasn’t achieveing the desired effect I was aiming for that was creating illusions through a form. The lights here were giving the effect and the form was still missing.
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STEP 3
GETTING TO A FORM When it came to actually making the structure to scale and figuring out the reflections , the impact of the shadow created by the glass was not very strong and evident unlike the shadows that were created in my model. There could be two reaons for this - Low intensity light and the texture of the glass. Hence I decided to take a step back and revisit my earlier forms and experiment. This further directed me to develop my form.
From my past prototypes , I realised that just layering single acrylic sheets from the grid wont create the effect .So I started creating forms where two coloured acrylic sheets could be put together like a maze at different levels and then hung in a box from a ceiling.This would create illusionistic patterns on the wall and the floor.
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REFLECTION This project has been a growing experience for me as a designer and as a person. While opting for this course, and being immersed in it for a month, I was still unsure about what I’m going to create in the end , but the one thing that I knew was that I wanted to learn something new in my last semester before graduating. This course has allowed me to interact with professionals from various fields of design, which further lead to an informed decision to what I was doing. Along with this, Art in transit has been a course, which involved people from different degrees to collaborate together and work. Working with peers from various fields made me think in a different way and generate ideas that I would normally not think about. It has also been very challenging; throughout this course my ideas kept evolving with every experiment I did which further help me derive at a form. Also the fact, that lighting is something I’ve never worked with; through this project I got a wide view into how lighting can change the mood in a public space.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Books
Citadels of Glass - The story of India’s new Suburban Landscape , Tathagata Chatterji
Articles
Glass and the myth of Transparency , Anna Taylor The backgroud in Bangalore : Architecture and critical resistance in a new modernity , Prem Chandavarkar Architectural glass , Types , Performances and Legislation, Jelena Sevic
Newspaper Articles Glass in high rise buildings making Bangalore hotter , DNA , Deepthi MR A green building is not glass , Business Standard , Sunita Narain Changing skyline , The Hindu , A. Srivathsan
Interviews Soumitro Ghosh Sathyaprakash Varanashi Parvati Ranjit Naik
Websites www.archdaily.com - Material matters ; Glass is more with Mies Van der Rohe - Light matters ; Glass beyond transparency with James Carpenter www.jamesturrell.com www. olafureliasson.net