Mak ing w i han th ds! Chinmay Shidhore
Contents 1. Thesis 2. Competitions A. City & the Water’s edge: Edge as a System B. IAHH Student Design Competition: Conservative surgery, Rethinking Affordable housing in Dharavi 3. Documentation A. Measure Drawing Shillong, India B. Landscape Planning 4. Academics A. Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum Extension B. Pastoral Mental Health Clinic C. Folk Art & Dance Institute + Mediatheque
5. Advanced Modelling A. iMET B. La Cubierta C. Structures of Landscape 6. Resolution: Ski House 7. Graphic Design A. Posters for events at KRVIA B. Competition entry: Blankspace FAIRYTALES
1. Thesis
Water Engines: Schools for Ecology Guide: Vikram Pawar This thesis is based in the Vasai-Virar sub-region(VVSR) of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The region is geographically located on an estuary of the Ulhas river to the south and the Vaitarna river to the north, which makes it an extensive ecosystem of it’s own. It also lies in a heavy rainfall zone. The region is peppered with innumerable lakes that contain sweet water, mainly used for agriculture.Over these years, these lakes have developed ecologies around them facilitating life around them by providing a number of ecosystems services to the people living in the vicinity. It is therefore important to establish a relationship between this new landscape and the ancient ecosystems prevailing in this region through the architecture of this urbanism.
In the recent years, this region being in very close proximity to a metropolis like Mumbai, has been subjected to a tremendous influx of urban growth. As a result, it serves as a satellite town to Mumbai straining it to undergo a massive transformation with more and more RCC buildings popping up within the new landscape The discourse on ecology circles around the building of relationships between organisms and their environments. In such times it becomes crucial to meticulously scrutinise the institutions that humans have created in order to understand their lived environments.
Thesis: On both sides of this spectrum lie service institutions. However, on the right, it could be said that the institutional framework is extremely pervasive and uses force making the person using them a victim of advertisement, indoctrination, consumption and imprisonment. Whereas on the left side lies a set of ideas that amplifies opportunity under clearly defined regulations and seeks to strike a congenial relationship with the natural systems within which it thrives. Here, it means that the lakes need to be reimagined not merely as water tanks, but as schools for ecologies which lead to the holistic development of communities and not just supposed individual growth. Spatial characteristics: The imagination of an alternate learning institute cannot sprout from the use of public resources to “make� people learn. Rather, it has to strive to create a new relationship between humans, education and environment. These schools can no more function as institutions where a curriculum is taught, but transform into cells for the conservation and management of local ecosystems. Operational characteristics: The most important purposes of a good educational apparatus are as follows- it has to provide an access to it’s infrastructure for any person who wishes to learn at any point in their lives, it has to empower any person who want to share what they know with the rest of the world, and it has to serve as a platform for any person who wishes to raise an issue to the public and make their challenge known. It is possible to develop a network of tutors and connect them with people who wish to learn from them about things pertaining to the ecology of that area.
1. School for ecology at Agashi: The school will be joint with a public library in the immediate context to provide for a public interface. 2. School for ecology at Gaas: The school will study groundwater since Gaas village still operates using open wells for irrigation. 3. School for ecology at Nirmal: Nirmal lake comprises of two lakes, Vimal and Malai. It is also situated very close to a farmer’s market which is a common distribution centre for Vasai. This market can be imagined as a platform for the farmers to interact with the rest of the city. 4. School for ecology at Chakreshwar: This school can thus specialise in archeological studies as there are archeological sites nearby. 5. School for ecology at Papdy and Bondli: Papdy already has an existing school. It also serves to be a major fishing market for the precinct. A timber workshop also exists between the two lakes. The architecture will thus weave these programmes with each other. Fishing also takes place within the lake.
*Drawings not scaled. Please see humans for proportions.
*Drawings not scaled. Please see humans for proportions.
*Drawings not scaled. Please see humans for proportions.
*Drawings not scaled. Please see humans for proportions.
Process
2. Competitions A. City & the Water’s Edge, 2016 Collaborations: Mihir Desai, Lekha Samant 1st Prize Entry
Edge as a System: The water’s edge is a continuous dialogue encompassing this ever-growing complex relationship. Thus, there is no space in the city independent of the water’s edge. The very notion of nature as a garment needs to be questioned, for we are the fibres that make up the garment. A problematic relationship between man and nature emerges, which leads to the ignorance of the landscapes we live in. Institutions are formed to control and contain this “nature” which in turn leads to severe dereliction of the systemic relationships. How can land participate in urban ecology with underpinnings of culture, livelihood and aspirations, through an architecture built for a symbiotic spaceprogram in relation to other properties in the city? How do we transform the idea of ‘land as property’ to ‘land as ecology’? We look at ideas of systemic interventions within the catchment of the Goregaon River (Nullah) to mitigate the risks of creek pollution and absorbing the impacts of local flooding and to create synchronization between ecological processes and the built environment. These interventions will become strategies to integrate water into the development plan for Goregaon, PS ward, Mumbai. The interventions, therefore, oscillate between different scales of planning, right from the individual household to the larger wetlands, in order to understand the complexity of the ‘water’s edge’.
B. International Association for Human Habitat Competition,2016 Conservative Surgery:
Rethinking Affordable Housing in Dharavi, Sector 4
1st Prize Entry
3. Documentation A. Measure drawing Shillong, India, 2014 Building: Brahmo Samaj INTACH Heritage Awards, 2014
2nd Prize Entry
This exercise was carried out in order to document undocumented buildings in Shillong, in Meghalaya in North-Eastern India. As a part of the study, the building tectonic was kept at the epicentre. Hence, an exploded axonometric drawing fills in aptly to show the method of construction techniques used in the region which also happens to fall in an area with relatively high seismic activity.
B. Landscape Planning, 2014
This exercise was carried out on a given piece of land in order to explore keyline planning methods for sustainable methods to cultivation. Here, the objective was to make a slope diagram based on the contours of the land and predict the flow of water on land by identifying the main ridge, primary ridges and valleys and the keypoints.
4. Academics A. Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum Extention, Mumbai, 2015
The project tries to dissect the idea of a museum re-imagined as a nexus of complex movements integrating the experience of walking through the city, abstracting it out, as it becomes the identity for the city. Thus, this project tries to capture that essence and formalise it in order to provide a truly public place for the city where the citizens can express themselves.
B. Pastoral Mental Health Clinic, Shillong, 2014
This project is an exploration of the idea of imagining architecture as a healing agent to those suffering from mental health disorders. The institute is associated to the local Presbytarian Church. The building tries to respond to the church by extending the courtyard of the church thus forming an extention to the Church itself.
C. Folk Art & Dance Institute + Mediatheque, Pune, 2014 The idea of Hybridisation is used as a strategy for the project in order to create an interface between the classic versus the modern within the dense urban fabric of the inner city of Pune. The architecture takes largely from the study of type and typology of the ‘Wada’ housing as a springing point and and tries to create a ‘Node’ by negotiating between the contrasting programmes.
5. Advanced Modelling A. iMET, MIT Campus, 2015 Project by Studio Ensamble, Madrid, Spain Material: Steel Profiles
B. La Cubierta, Exhibit at Triennale Di Milano, Milan, 2016 Project by Studio Ensamble, Madrid, Spain Material : Steel Profiles + Porex Pan (Thick Foam)
C. Structures of Landscape, Exhibit at Venice Bienalle (Arsenale), Venice, 2016 Project by Studio Ensamble, Madrid, Spain Materials : Concrete casting + Porex Pan (Thick foam)
*Mock-up for the exhibition in the Studio backyard
6. Resolution Ski House, Madrid, 2015 Project by Studio Ensamble, Madrid, Spain
7. Graphic Design A. Posters for events at KRVIA, 2012-2017
B. Competition entry: Blank Space FAIRYTALES, 2018 Collaboration with Mihir Desai & Lekha Samant
Tha nk y ou!