Architecture & War & Aftermath by BSSA Editorial

BALWANT SHETH SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE & WAR & AFTERMATH EDITORIAL TEAM

SHLOKA MASHRU & JANVI MANGUKIYA EDITOR : ARTICLES & ILLUSTRATIONS BY : ANTARA CHOWDHURY, AMAN MEHTA, JANVI MANGUKIYA, HARSIMAR ARORA, ARRYAN SINGH, ANISHA MISHRA, SHLOKA MASHRU, PRIYAM GULATI, DARREN LOBO, DEEPIKA NAYAK, MAHIT SHAH PROOF READING:

SHLOKA MASHRU & JANVI MANGUKIYA

FORMAT BY:

KRISHA JAIN, KARUNA KANNAN & MANAV PARAB

WEBSITE:

www.bssaeditorial.com

EDITOR’S NOTE Dear Readers, “Architecture & ...” is our valued venture of exploring various outlooks on architecture through distinct lens. Newfangled concepts for future city and urban regeneration are evolving in a world plagued by conflict and disaster. While the globe has seen its share of dismal post-war rehabilitation endeavors, the twenty-first century attempts at promising notions, which are more culturally aware and tolerant, cohesive, and resilient in nature. For the first volume of this academic year of 2021-2022, our team desired to present architecture through the stance of war, conflict, and its aftermath. Through a diversified compilation of our understanding and take on ‘War & Aftermath,’ we present to you a collection of excerpts and extracts that inspect wars and its consequences, when placed in disparate situations and conditions. From war being reckoned as an annihilation to it becoming a catalyst that sparks reformations, we aim at inculcating the various sequences and chronologies the aftermath escorts. This edition also serves as a demonstration of the remarkable student work that has been accomplished during the previous semester, as well as our ardent efforts to keep our campus virtually alive. We wish you a pleasant reading experience! Shloka Mashru and Janvi Mangukiya. Editors.

FORTS Fort architecture is a field that goes rather unnoticed. Despite their aesthetic appeal, one cannot fully appreciate this mammoth of a defensive building without the historical context and the slow shift it has seen over the millennia. Before we can dive into the architectural genius of fort architecture, we must familiarize ourselves with a few basic terms and their functions. Most forts, in their inner and outer walls have a wall-like ridge raised above the ground level called a rampart which offers vantage to the outside. These are flanked by low rise walls called parapet which serve to defend the defender while containing holes known as merlons for artillery fortifications and arrow holes for the archers which enable an offensive form of defense. Protrusions called bastions emerge from the main keep which serve as watch towers or are flanked by smaller watchtowers called turrets. The earliest of forts have fewer bastions as there was less gunpowder and thus fewer artillery to accommodate. Architecture is usually gazed through the window of “form follows function” but for forts, it can be said that they go hand in hand; form and function intertwined together to make a complex web such that the form itself satisfies the function. Symmetrical forts are seen everywhere as asymmetry leaves room for weaknesses and areas that are less well defended than the rest. The circular bastions follow the isoperimetric theorem which states that of all 2D shapes of the same perimeter, circle has the most area. With this, we can conclude that circular shape of bastions enable them to defend a larger area with a small army defending the small perimeter, thus leaving less room for error and failure of the defense strategies. Bastions of the later generation around the industrial revolution, not only grew in number, but also the amount of turrets that flanked them. These were to accommodate the increased artillery fortification which was a result of the increased gunpowder production. Soon, artillery fortification became synonymous with modernity and a jewel used to boast others of ones strength and military power. Furthermore, to deal with blind spots for the archers, the turrets were designed in an arrowhead shape such that the field of fire of multiple defenders could overlap and thus securing the fort from being breached by any unseen attackers.

& FORTIFICATIONS A fort is essentially a planned city with artillery fortifications because most battles fought were sieges which either aimed to breach the fort’s defenses or to cut them off from food supply long enough to starve the population into surrender. Since forts were the primary center of power for administration of the local surrounding areas, their sophistication is closely linked to socio and economic growth of a place. The more fortified and well defended a fort appeared, the better was its safety. This perception of safety attracted more traders thus improving the economy of the place. Older castles had to rely on temporary defenses to keep up with the advancing artillery. The major problem with relying of temporary fortifications is that it requires a lot of labor which could be better spent constructing a permanent one. Castles at Metz and Augsburg attempted to fortify the old castles by building stronger bastions at a few key locations. The newer bastions were designed to withstand likely attacks by proving enough space for the defending army to access it and provide them enough flanking range for fire where troops could be concentrated in defense against aggressors. Gates were the easiest to recognize with their elaborate ornamentation and their large conspicuous appearance. They were also the weakest point of a fortress. To secure them against incoming battling rams, and soldiers pushing against it, they had large spikes imbedded in them. But they were also seen as a status symbol which spoke about the glory of the city, the statuettes and carvings depicted the paraphernalia of war. This made the city feel more personal to the defending soldiers as they fought with the assurances of their memory being immortalized in the ornamentations that spoke to every traveler that entered the fort and it’s behemoth fortifications. Antara Chowdhury

- Aman Mehta In the times of war, when a country couldn’t even trust its neighbour, one of the things which affected city planning systems and lifestyle during the wars were city wide alert mechanism. Sirens, sensors and radars were some common tools used during wars when countries/cities were at risk of attacks and air strikes, such systems were put up in order alert the citizens so they could prepare and brace themselves. Sirens were in major use in Calcutta (Kolkata) as the state was a huge risk air strikes by Japan. While in the morning people would tend to run for shelter, at night times, light would be shut off inside buildings along with street lamps which would also be put off, all in order to make the Japanese aircrafts confused about their position and not launch the missiles.

During air strikes and attacks, people would have to adapt to situations which had the ability to break the whole pattern of the area. Based on the resources people have, there were also many cases of people building bunkers and “bomb safe walls” which were essentially thick walls. Construction gunny bags would be placed by the ground bunkers as they act as a great barrier and can resist bullets attacks and blast impacts. When such methods are used within at risk cities, they contribute a little tension to the atmosphere of that particular area which also as a result affects the behavioural pattern of the people there. It makes a person fell uneasy at times due to precedents which have taken place possibly in the same region.

Before such sirens were invented, a group of army men would cycle around honking in the region of attack with placards which asked the people to take cover. After the world war 2 ended and sirens are not needed everywhere, there are countries which have updated their siren systems just in case of an attack, like South Korea to protect themselves from strikes from the North, and also Singapore where drills are taken place once every month. As for the western countries, USA for example has an online network set up where every mobile gets an alert digitally. Nowadays most cities have adapted and the purpose of these sirens have grown from attack alerts to a disaster alert, like in case of the United States in 2005 during the Katrina Hurricane, these sirens were used to alert the people as and when the hurricane is about to move into that area.

These are some of the ways war has affected architecture and design elements in the city and also the citizens. It makes one think how vulnerable design is to absolutely any change/addition. Wars were predominantly fought across vast battlefields, pitting thousands of men and women, large army corps and heavy weaponry against each other in open fields. Cities could be besieged or sacked but fighting mostly never took place within the actual city public spaces. When a city or a region is under attack from an enemy, educational and employment opportunities are alleviated and also lost. As a result, large numbers of people are internally displaced, they lose their belongings and properties and seek refuge in neighbouring countries, overburdening the capacities of that host city's infrastructure and also in return disrupting the same in the new city or region. In conclusion, an attack on a city is not only contained to that particular city but also affects the neighbouring ones. It has an impact on the daily life/routine of people. These attacks and the alert systems sets out a series of reactions led by tension and panic amongst the citizens which the architecture has to be ready to deal with. It also has to constantly adapt and re-invent in order to fit the latest demands and trends as seen in modern use of the old siren systems. This points out how architectural planning and design has to be flexible enough and also take many things into consideration all the while keeping the public in mind.

‘The Change Catalyst’ Harsimar Arora

War and architecture have a deep and juxtaposed relationship of building and destroying. Violence and destruction through history have led to ever changing settlement patterns and have resulted in the urban fabric of modern cities as they exist today. This article focuses on radical transformations of cities that have endured war, analysing what architecture becomes when it collides with violence(violence as a catalyst of change). It aims to outline why architecture is targeted at war and then study the relationship between war and the city’s response to itspecifically that of mass housing.

Alongside the death of people, war often inflicts a parallel death in their cultural legacies, through the destruction of the cultural capital that is expressed in architecture. Architectural heritage forms a symbol of a people’s culture and identity and is thus under threat in times of war. Buildings are of value in our minds because they evoke a sense of permanence and belonging; as a result, their destruction results in the loss of identities and the sense of absence. Take for instance, the Babri masjid scenario- a national issue that led to constant destruction and resurrection of a structure based on a religious dispute. The dispute led to the construction of a structure; the construction led to destruction and dispute. One then questions: Is architecture frequently targeted because of the symbolism it embodies? Is architecture a tool for empowering or resisting violence? Can architecture then transform violence in the same way that violence can transform architecture? This sense of loss post-war is often only associated with heritage landmarks, monuments or public buildings- and their resurrection or restoration. However, most notable and significant changes in the city post-war are those of housing patterns. The major shifts in the architecture of mass housing projects can be divided into three major periods: the pre-war years, the inter-war years, and the post-war years. Housing estates served as a discipline mechanism for penitent aristocrats and meddling bourgeois in the early years. Industrial growth led to the upper classes’ commitment to giving better housing circumstances to the lower two-thirds of the population who struggled in lower living conditions. Housing Policies and Town Planning Associations had been established to address the issue. Housing estates were built in the garden suburbs to replace slums and cramped living quarters. However, most people leaving the slums couldn't afford replacements, causing further overcrowding of slums. Housing provision had a largely social cleansing impact under capitalism. Post the First World War, the European government was faced with an urgent necessity to provide housing on a massive scale with the goal of creating jobs as well as homes. CIAM, who formalized Modern Architecture and saw it as a social service amidst economic crises, had proposed new standards of living that meet basic needs. Higherdensity proposals, such as Ville Radieuse, had already been proposed by Le Corbusier, who highlighted the need for modular mass housing as well as the provision of community areas. His city plans, which strictly separated housing units from parkland interspersed with perimeter blocks, with slabs on pilotis recessing in a zigzag pattern , had a significant influence on later mass housing models. The Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, designed by Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), are excellent instances of building reform movements aimed at improving housing and living conditions. They not only provided innovative design solutions, but they also began to define new urban and architectural typologies influenced by the Bauhaus movement. Many Siedlungen were built in and around Berlin, arranging low-rise blocks in garden suburb layouts. Ernst May directed the construction of the Roman city of Frankfurt, which adorned the slopes with high-tech low-rise buildings. On the other hand, the buildings in the rows by Gropius of Dammerstock were strictly orthogonal and followed the Bauhaus minimalism. Contemporarily, mass housing estates even came up as a part of the Viennese experiment, ‘socialism in a city’.

After World War II, large-scale housing projects received unprecedented impetus to respond to left-behind communities and address post-war development. In addition to the terms prefabricated structure and modularity, low-rise and high-rise variations have emerged. Therefore, the project also played an important role in providing examples of ongoing architectural movements and trends. Le Corbusier's Unite D'habitation was one of the first modernist skyscrapers to try to solve the social housing crisis by providing a generous communal meeting room. However, not all Corbusieran settlements have been successful in resolving the housing crisis, and many have to be demolished due to poor planning, cheap construction or inadequate construction. After World War II, large-scale housing construction grew rapidly around the world. One of the most notable experiments with the prefabricated modular megastructure was Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67. Attempts have been made to integrate bright, fresh air and open spaces in the context of a prototype of a dense urban community. In Japan, metabolic exercises based on flexibility, modularity and interchangeable units have been adopted. The Nakagin Capsule consisted of micro-apartments that needed to be replaced as needed. However, the tower could be demolished for 10 years. Asian cities like Singapore and Hong Kong are famous for their wide range of public housing, if not the quality of their designs. In the Indian context, large housing construction sought to integrate local languages, such as the low-rise building, Aranya Housing by Doshi and the high-rise building, Kanchanjunga Apartments by Correa. Through the years, mass housing and settlement patterns have been impacted by several factors- war and destruction being a primordial one. Urban and suburban ideas have evolved and transformed based on their social, political and economic environment. The urban process of this constant adjusting and survival defines the character between the city, its people and violence; it has characterized modern cities and their contemporary scenario.

Bibliography: Upadhyaya, P., n.d. A timeline of mass housing architecture - RTF | Rethinking The Future. [online] RTF | Rethinking The Future. Available at: <https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/designing-for-typologies/a3663a-timeline-of-mass-housing-architecture/> [Accessed 12 December 2021].

BUNKERS

REVIVAL OF THE REFUGE Arryan Singh

From the sand filled hazards on golf courses to German dugouts becoming prevalent during the World War, bunkers have taken several forms eventually retaining its cold rigid nature. It was only until the second World War that bunkers would begin to be recognised as the cemented dugouts created to hold arsenal and house humans for protection. Architecture thus took a form to restrict not only shear impact from heavy weaponry but also interaction with humans. Buried in grounds or standing behemoth forces of concrete- like watchtowers waiting to be inhabited, bunkers have not only been able to safeguard humans but also a tumultuous history. Through forms themselves, one can view these as structures frozen in time awaiting a new catastrophe. For many years the World War II bunkers around the world were regarded as an ugly remnant of a bygone era, with little thought given to their historical and architectural significance. As the French architect and philosopher, Paul Virilio rightly says in his famous book Bunker Archaeology- “The bunker is less a warning about the opponent from the past than about the war of today and tomorrow about total war, the risk which is present everywhere, the immediacy of the danger, the amalgamation of what is military and what is civilian, the homogenisation of conflict”. These military seeds sewn across cities and continents grow an unsettling fear of what is to lie ahead. Of what society chose to retain from pure chaos, thus psychologically affecting its surrounding. An almost poetic outlook on these forms of resistance, death and destruction has been the creation and sustenance of art. Many of these bunkers have been housing art, in turn becoming art themselves, holding onto the beauteous aspect of world history one panel at a time. While some house art pieces several have undergone changes to become art itself. To some this seems as near demolition of such historic time capsules while others indirectly question the very purpose they were created for. Having been sliced open they’re susceptible to the forces of nature and mankind. Uprooting the very fabric of its existence in a way, this is the artists’ way to take over these cold forms- ripping them apart from their spines and making their delicate cores- the living spaces, vulnerable.

Bunker 599 is an example of this wonder. The white staircase merges to form a thin white line slicing right through the New Dutch Waterline bunker trailing onto the quiet lake has converted it from a remorseful mound into a place of meditation. Aligning oneself to the white line and making oneself steady the same way. Eventually gaining its recognition as a national monument. Where as in Albania the beautification process extended to communist structures and residential buildings, the bunker style entrance is surrounded by swatches of paint everywhere. Instead of wrecking it all down, the artists collaborated to use these historic places as canvases while surrounding areas saw city workers plant more than 55,000 trees in hopes to rejuvenate a solemn area. And so it did. With local police noticing a lowered crime rate, people noticed an increase in a combined sense of joy and pleasure. The squares that held riots to the bunkers that kept an eye for caution and warning both, have now become places of jocund interaction and communion. The bunkers have continually stood the test of time even when it comes to their operation. With the booming growth taking place in data creation, networking and storage, it calls for a physical realm where mega units of this data can be stored or the machines measuring and churning this data out can be kept safely. And thus we see bunkers becoming core data storage units. And thus for someone trying to access this data digitally they’ll witness what some assume a virtual bunker due to the difficulty and resistance to outside invasion. In some way what continues to ooze a lingering sense of dread- be it of what the past had or the potential that a possible future might hold, the world hopes to not use these bunkers for what they were meant to be sued for. Instead they are being utilised as a resource to the citizens. For art, for history and for data. Bunkers have become a silent iconography to war. they tend to create a solemn feeling among citizens affected by war. not entirely mournful but an odd sense of martyrdom. As they remain silent waiting while artists rethink them as canvases for their art.

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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the longest-running and most controversial conflicts persisting since British colonialism and the two World Wars. At its heart, it is a conflict between two self-determination movements — the Jewish Zionist project and the Palestinian nationalist project, that fight for and against Israeli occupancy in Palestinian land, at the West Bank and Gaza strip respectively. Therefore, through the article, an attempt is made to understand, how the violence through occupancy is executed with elements of architecture to affect its built environment to the advantage of Israel. it is observed how urban context is utilized to its full potential to disintegrate the current state of affairs in Palestine. Violence has a multitude of forms, while men wage wars with ammunition and artillery, urban warfare rethinks war, rethinks annexation, the warfare doesn't merely remain on far borders from the urban settlements but it culminates in the built environment by interacting with its user. Israel occupancy has a similar connotation, architecture is transformed into a weapon in order to enable settlements and intimidate or marginalise Palestinians. 'The occupation is an environment that was slowly conceived to strangulate Palestinian communities, villages, towns to create an environment that would be unliveable.’ Architects such as Eyal Weizman, who examine such built environments and elucidate the methods practiced for successful occupancy, through his documentaries he states that the invasive crime is committed on the drawing board. The pattern of destruction commences from the settlements being built on wedges with the objective to not only serve Israelis but also consciously create significant material damage by ripping apart the urban dense fabric of Palestine.

Taking into account the annexation of Palestinian land in west post 1967, Israel names it part of Jerusalem, and starts building neighbourhoods that act as the living wall around the occupied the city, such buildings reflect the inherent qualities of Israeli architecture, this is done by effectively using stone cladding on high concrete walls that successfully create a sense of estrangement amongst Palestinians as these bring the essence of Jerusalem and alienates them from their recognized built mass. The tool of unfamiliarity is an attempt to separate and control land.

The Israel urban settlements are established on land that establishes dominion. this is achieved by cultivating the neighbourhood on hill tops. the home typologies in these urban settlements are limited to what the Israeli law states. The law requires these homes to have their roofs painted red, this system helps Israeli air force distinguishing Israel land from Palestinian. the design of these suburban dwellings is also carefully planned such that they transform into optical instruments of war. As one enters the home through the inner circuit they notice that fenestrations in the volume of house face towards and down at Palestine, providing a full view to plan an attack. Many of these houses combined paint the open view and become suburban scale optical devices of survey. Israel army plans bombings using the volumetric framework of the settlements.

In the Israel Palestine frontier, the border splinters into various boundary establishing devices such as fences in front of Palestinian settlements, blockades around Palestinian cities, highways operational borders and various checkpoints in sterile areas to shrink the extents Palestine. The boundary walls at times are provided with observation towers which hide the army from the Palestinian civilians but are used as tools for surveillance, which invades the privacy of settlers. Control is established effectively by tampering with rate of movement that is the speed of the city. Israeli communities are built next to close highways that provides direct access for movement, accelerates Israelis, this aids their occupation by creating a fast network for travel and communication. what is observed on the other hand is deceleration of Palestine by establishing check points, fences and by making routes through insurmountable valleys. As access becomes an issue, prompt resistance is difficult. Elements such as turnstiles on checkpoints are used to slow down the passage for movement for people, these turnstiles are known to press against bodies and make it physically uncomfortable for its users, for users that may not have a body type that fits through these turnstiles, for them these instruments are violent forms of degradation, that shame bodies and reduce Palestinians to just their flesh. when instruments of abuse are laid at the periphery of cities, a rebellion could be effortlessly crushed The war at Jenin, records the movement of Israel forces in bulldozers traversing through land zero and demolishing buildings in the cities to tear its dense fabric. The citizens after wars are left with nothing but vast debris to climb. Israeli attack on the city of Nablus demonstrates the use of private of public and spaces. The military break walls and creates passages through the private fabric of settlements for circulation to remain unnoticed and then attack directly at public spaces for warfare. As war persists armies learn the syllabus of architecture before they do of weaponry. Architecture if is the poison, it also becomes the antidote. Resistance births new form of studies in the field, the culmination of forensic architecture begins at the destruction. Architects present the forensic analyses of demolished mass, and rebuilt the scenario to present as evidence of illegal of occupation and attack in political forums and courts fight for justice for their losses. As designers it is our role to understand, educate and create awareness with the resources we have. this awareness can help citizens defend themselves and protest against the violence they face. The beauty of design can defend integrity and fight the hostility that comes to their gates. The power lies in its cognizance.

References and Citations Rebel Architecture - The architecture of violence. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/ybwJaCeeA9o Ramchurn, R. (2014). Rebel Architect #3: Eyal Weizman and the architecture of occupation. [online] The Architects’ Journal. Available at: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/rebel-architect-3-eyal-weizman-and-the-architecture-of-occupation.

-Priyam Gulati