AHM1_FragmentsOf by Jorge Pizarro

Fragments of: Ahm1 Ahmedabad 2015 Workshop | Fragments of | Footprints E.A.R.T.H. Organized by:

Yatin Pandya (Footprints E.A.R.T.H.)

Edited by:

Fragments of | Bum Studio | bumstudio.com

Team Yatin Pandya (Footprints E.A.R.T.H.) Marta Badiola (Fragments of) Jorge Pizarro (Fragments of) Narendra Mangwani (URBSCAPES) Edition design by:

Marta Badiola and Jorge Pizarro

ÂŠPictures and work:

ÂŠ All copyrights belong to their owners

For the rest of the content CC- Creative Commons- Share Alike Special thanks to all the Footprints E.A.R.T.H. Team and Pandya Family Madrid, Ahmedabad 2015

A fragment, a piece, an unfinished, or incomplete part of something. The fragmented thinking reveals the partial character of a learning process, always accumulative. New pieces are added to our knowledge, or sometimes subtracted, contradicting and destroying past portions.

CONT CONT 8 12 14 GATHERING FRAGMENTS

ahmedabad

interview

forces of

w i t h P R O F.

contradiction

yatin pandya

48 50 58 stories

NAGAR WADO POL

DEV NI SHERI

ENTS ENTS 34 40 42 DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol

the lives of others and you

nansha jiva ni pol

66 74 80 HAJIRA Ni Pol

jethabai Ni

Udad dal

Pol

papads recipe

Alejanda Cotoner

Carmen Gil

BelĂŠn Gonzalez Aranguren

Susana Alvarez Olive

Ana Herreros

studen Alba Carrasco

Juan Crespo

Ana Pro

Marina Villalobos

Patricia Velilla

Elena Cruz

Almudena BallarĂn

Ana Cue

Alberto Sanchez

Nehuen Blanco

Aurea Rodriguez

Sandra Zabala

Elia Huelamo

Mónica Esteban

Laura Corrales

nts

Teresa Páramo

Adriana Blanco

Paul-Adrian de Vreese

Carmen Castañs

Aniket Shah

Ragul Ravichandran

Utsavi Jani

Jay Bhanushali

Kartik Rathod

Dani Gladson

GATHERING FRAGMENTS

8 GATHERING FRAGMENTS

The students travel to a city in a context of rapid growth and transformation, to study a particular urban fragment, defined by its physical and social environment or fragments. The understanding of the context requires the analysis of the factors that shape it: the culture, the values, the history, the beliefs and traditions, the technologies used, its legal framework, social structures, economy and business fabric, its urban configuration and means of transport, the types of built and unbuilt space, connections and edge conditions, energy resources and efficiency, its streets and the activity that it occurs throughout the day, throughout the year.

A workshop to think from an open but foreign perspective, inside a new place. From inside but from outside, through both local and foreign eyes. Looking for understanding in order to produce tailored approaches to the specific context and generate relationships of importation and exportation of methodologies. The workshop aims to develop tools of analytical observation and management in complex processes of city building, with the student participating in collaborative processes of environment creation and redefining the position of the architect in such participatory processes. It gives the opportunity to meet other approaches to different problems, and to gradually approach the

The goal of this activity is to create personal links with other parts of the world and its people. Ties that would be renewed every year generating cross and overlapping conversations over time. Once the relationship is created, each year the workshop can focus on a new piece of the city, a new fragment, you learn a little more, a little less, something different, contradictory, new.

This is a studio that seeks to complement the training of the participant through a dialogued look to the exterior. An opportunity to develop a thorough analysis and initiate a project to continue later from a distance as an exercise, as a thesis project or as a personal research or experience.

Fragments of, an international network of urban research workshops, offers the possibility of generating synergies and networking around the world. It is an opportunity to expand our capabilities and enrich our vision through the contact with other ways of understanding reality. It is established as a platform to eliminate borders and bring people together in a field such as architecture and urbanism in which to maintain a global mind to act locally is therefore essential.

GATHERING FRAGMENTS 9

understanding of the living organism that is the city, always in process, always unfinished.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;regulati n o t o n ly the archi heritage, also loo human h pvk rameshwar

on should y look at itectural it should k at the eritageâ&#x20AC;?

ahmedabad forces of contradiction

Country of contrasts, difficult to judge from a European look, hard to avoid romanticism. India will reveal part of its identity and then contradict itself.

With more than 6 million people, Ahmedabad is the sixth most populous city in India. Historically, it is positioned as one of the economic and industrial centres with special importance in the XXth Century when hosted Mahatma Gandhi, leading the activism for Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independence from Britain. During the second half of the century, it lived a period of cultural splendour, attracting big names from the world of architecture and modern art 12 AHMEDABAD. FORCES OF CONTRADICTION

that left a mark in this enclave of living traditions.

Ahmedabad is the result of constant hybridization between tradition and modernity. Getting to know this city is approaching a fragment of India, a portion of such a plural country, that it would be wrong to claim understanding it. The urban fabric of the city is a direct outcome of this mixing and all the conflicts involved, making visible the contrasts in which the country is immersed, from slums to consolidated historic fabric, through new financial areas built in the form of skyscrapers glass, or even old peripheral rural areas today engulfed by the fast growth of the city. Ahmedabad offers countless case studies where our understanding of the context can be tested.

The relation of the context with space and time in which it sets, is a key element in order to get closer to this environment, changeable, dynamic, fluid and mutable, threatened by the current urban policies that, regardless of temporality as a factor, is jeopardizing some traditional idiosyncrasies of the region.

In March of 2015, a fragment of the city was studied, the traditional Pols in the old core of Ahmedabad, trying to face the challenges that these specific areas arise. These compact and organically arranged neighbourhoods are amazing examples of sustainable living environments; they suggest communal living with strong social bonding amongst the residents. The Pol houses are unique housing typology in itself by achieving maximum FSI in minimum building heights by consuming almost all the ground coverage and sharing three sides yet have enough day light and ventilation using the element of court. Due to urbanization and change in economy, some of these pols have gone under

transformation and are getting abandoned by the original users who are moving to the newer parts of the city.

This studio tried to identify the issues in the selected pols, suggest an appropriate program to insert and thus transform the Pols into habitable, equitable and sustainable living environment. It was a laboratory of social, cultural and technical learning for Spanish students that, working hand by hand with Indian students and local actors, seek to pose the right questions to extract from them the tools with which to tackle complex urban projects in such contexts.

AHMEDABAD. FORCES OF CONTRADICTION 13

Photo Credit: Marta Badiola

1 4 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

PROF. PAN

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 1 5

YATIN DYA

1 6 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Looking outside is never a problem but not customizing for the local is an issue â&#x20AC;?

his study, sitting on the floor on what we would call a mattress. It is a bipolar room, one side, where Yatin seats, large windows let the breeze in moving the long white curtains and making some little bells sound, the other, a dozen workers are concentrated among papers and computers. Yatin has a folding table on his lap, one of those used to have breakfast in bed and that he uses to rest his computer, he moves it and rises to greet us. We sit and he offers a vanilla ice cream, we accept, hospitality is one of its great virtues. The conversation begins after a few laughs. You have to understand, and for that I have to explain, that in this conversation the questions we formulated were not important, sometimes we did it with more success sometimes with less, the important thing was what they could arouse on Yatin. Shoot he says.

How do you think an architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s training should be after â&#x20AC;&#x153;formal educationâ&#x20AC;??

In life, every day we need to learn and we do learn, both as human being as well as professionals, especially in architecture, exposure matters a lot, observations matter a lot, and your analysis and self-thinking matter a lot, so there is never an end to education.

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 1 7

Yatin Pandya, the architect, teacher and co-organizer of the workshop, receives us in

And I’m not saying this as a philosophical statement alone, it is actually quite practical. For example, every time a client comes with a program you have to start thinking a fresh response, specific to the context, specific to the time and place, so it is not what you know from yesterday, if so you don’t grow.

In a way, we are born as a child every day, and every day is a day of learning, so there is

1 8 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

never an end to education. Knowledge in every form is always welcome.

With the recent changes in economy and society, do you think there has been a shift in the way architects and planners are approaching their practice as well as their education?

There is a book about the changes that occurred after India’s Independence from European domination, which lasted more than 60 years, and what kind of pendulum shift have we gone through in architecture approach, thinking and ideologies and we found that in post market economy, the importance has shifted more from welfare and social values to what can be sold and marketed.

In the case of India, after globalization there was also a give and take from the rest of the world, learning from anywhere is always a good idea, and we’ve had great examples here with the silk route for example, but what I feel is that there are things that are happening which are questionable. It’s not about change, but it is change without adaptation. Instead, we should take the idea of changing but adapting to the local, the idea of glocal, local adaptation of a global perspective. Without this analysis of what it’s appropriate

and what is not, many of these models have not been successful and they won’t be. For example, American model, where on the one hand we are building high-rise but at the same time we give incentives to townships growing in the suburbs and sprawling, where even here, 30 km away from the city, the constructions are high-rise. So, where is the logic? If on one hand we build high-rise to make city more compact but at the same time we are sprawling the city with this townships. It’s all about individual vehicle, increasing

streets, bringing up this value of indifference. In Europe on the other hand people still live in the old city core and maintain their traditional houses as well as building new ones, but they keep their traditions, their culture and their language, and yet they are considered very modern and global.

Looking outside is never a problem but not customizing for the local is an issue. Decisions makers who travel somewhere rather than seeing how the city was clean, how they were treated, how public transport works, they will come back and say “We will build the tallest building in our city”. We are giving too much importance to something that it’s not relevant for us.

Other problem of globalization is about flattening the world, there has to be different kinds of visions depending to the context, whereas now it is becoming the same glass manufacturing unit, building the same in Chicago and Ahmedabad, where we have 45º outside, and even in terms of aesthetic it’s becoming the same. The diversity, the local flavour, the particularity and identity is vanishing because of this flattening.

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 1 9

our energy consumption and leading us to losing our relationship with the city and the

Like Gandhi used to say “I do not want my house to be walled in all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be into about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any”

From a socio-economic and political point of view slums and informal settlements have been considered a burden for the city and sometimes not even seen, do you believe we can, through architecture, help to make visible the invisible or change the perception of what slums and informal

2 0 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

settlements are?

Yes, it’s a matter of perception, the general perception is that slums and squatter settlements are a burden to the city, and that the city is being a charity by leaving it there and therefore every government tend to say that there are no slums in their areas. There are different aspects that we need to look into: what is the definition of a slum? See if our norms are wrong, when we became independent we said that the minimum house size would be 60, 70 or 80 m² and now we have reduced it to 16 or 18 m², so at that time if I lived in a an 80 m² house it would be called living in a slum. Certain definitions need to be questioned. It is not to romanticize slum, it is to really understand where the issue is, and the issue is in the definition, and we call them slums because they are not building their own land, they have occupied a collective land, so we call them illegal, and we don’t consider them. But if you consider a socio-productive level they are helping the society by

the goods and by the services, there is a city that needs some certain kind of services at a certain price, and this informal sector, not only slums, also hawkers in the street [we call them parallel cities], they have managed to cater to more than half of the population.

For example, according to several statistics, more than half of Mumbai’s population are living in the so called slums, and the slums, if you consider the city’s land area, only occupies 8%, so 8% of the city’s land is consumed by 50% of the city’s population, are they a burden or are they a solution?! When formal system is not able to offer is to provide, this are the self-created solutions, and that’s a mindset change that is required. If authorities provided for land and infrastructure, then building is something that people have under their own resources, they don’t ask for any subsidies, so if you are able to manage this balance of land and infrastructure vs the building and resources then we’ll possible have a solution for this. If you are renting a place why will you spend time in repairing but if it’s my house if I see there is a crack that can go further in future, I’ll do something.

First it has to be the policies and mindset that have to be changed, and then, as an

are able to think the right typologies, the right kind of neighbourhoods, which are socio culturally interactive, which are environmentally suitable, and also in the right locations, because sometimes we do projects where we take all this people outside the city, and we don’t understand that they are there basically for their employment opportunities,

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 2 1

ongoing phenomena, through certain kinds of integrative studies, generate for more. If we

for the social network or for social support, I need to be in certain place in order to feel connected. This is where the parallel city has the pulse of locating where they are located because they are offering what people in that location require and that’s why it’s a symbiotic relationship.

If we had not designated ghettoes that perpetuate the social make-up, we could remove brackets from society. What is the point of hiding the slums if they are equally ventilated, people own their land and they are part of the city? But on the contrary, we have cities

2 2 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

that are subsidizing the rich, when for example I, as an affording person, move 20km away from the city and, without me investing anything, the city will bring me roads, will bring me internet, will bring me the infrastructures... we say that the city is developing so it must provide for it.

The fact is that all of these informal settlements are in the land that nobody wanted, because it was a flooding area or because it had this and that problem, but now that the city is scarce of land we want to throw them out from there.

Having an address is as important in an Indian context as having a name, so what do you feel people loose when they are forced to move away?

Address is your identity, your asset and your right. It’s in this matter when people from squatter settlements are evicted they lose all the work, investment and sense of belonging to that place and therefore their association and bond stops. When we say address we also talk about familiarity, it’s not the physical location alone, address means that, within that network and system, your identity and presence is felt. And of course it is also a physical bond, we have to understand that in India that is something that goes beyond generations, land passes from one generation to another, it is a great asset that you can inherit.

Who should be the agents involved in a project to confront the issues of informal settlements?

There should be a division of roles, for example only government has land and infrastructure, so they need to be involved both for the policies as well as their actual bank of land to be able to provide for these two things. The NGO’s can play their part in being a

conduct between the authorities provisions and the need of the population, they can even become a link between other set of technical solutions providers, so they become the core group, they also have to be in the root level so they know the realities. Professionals need to be part of it to provide the technicalities of the process, if they are doctors they have to give their know-how to the less privileged.

It is not charity; it is a matter of proportion. It should be an integrated part of everyone’s responsibility. People also need to have in their mindset that they don’t have to establish themselves in the welfare economy, in a charity receiver position, it has to be a partnership, where if a person has 50 and need 60 to survive it’s only that 10 that is missing. Being part of these processes is also a responsibility for the whole society.

In the processes where the authorities are not involved since the beginning do you think professionals should keep involved, in an activist way, waiting for the authorities to legalize these kind of processes?

real sense, so this is the least what architects or professionals can bring about, because without it there is always a denial of change. So that is an obligation, to try, to explore, experiment and apply, so that it becomes a demonstration.

It is also about demonstrating as an idea of change, change for better, and to try to change things you need to have this backup of demonstration. It could be research or interpretation, not only material projects, so there is an in-depth thinking about how to spend the money and thinking about the long term.

But we also have to think that many architects want to work in housing, everybody wants to do cute designs of isolated buildings, so even that role has to be contributed and supplied for the society.

Do you think architects should design considering future changes in time within the project? If so, what aspects should we take into account?

Always, is not in this project or any project. It’s building beyond us, so not for today, not for tomorrow, for perpetuate actually, unless other circumstances consume it. We have

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 2 3

In fact, authorities will only accept something when something is tried and tested in a

been happily enjoying thousand year old structures that are still living, like temples. Buildings were always built for longer time so in the whole strategy we have to say is not just today, is going to grow. That is the analysis you have to do, not only thinking of its immediate consumption but its whole life cycle, and also the life cycle after its first life.

It is that aspect of flexibility, of structuring such that you are able to adapt, picking what is

2 4 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

the fundamental DNA and leaving others to adjust in time. These strategies are important

“ F l e x i b i l i t y, s t r u c a r e a b l e t o a d a p t, fundamental DNA an adjust i ingredients of any development to think in future. Because if today I freeze the design tomorrow I realize is yesterday, so it’s past. It needs to update and it needs to adapt without demolishing. This is what architects of yesterday have told us.

Saari is a good example of this, the grandmother’s saari can suit to the granddaughter as well, but the saari hasn’t changed, it’s flexible, it’s possible to adapt to different bodies and different styles, it doesn’t go out of place.

What do we do with all the Mass Housing produced (and still being produced) all over the globe? Do we surrender to massive demolition (with the environmental and social impact involved) or are there any solutions?

Unless it was wrong from the beginning which would be the disaster, like this Pruitt-Igoe example where the wrong building was the cause of other crime and social problems, and therefore it was not for physical reasons but physical leading to other social and health reasons that was demolished.

But otherwise of course, upgrading, reuse and adapting and remodelling for different

needs, has to be the constant way of behaviour. Even ourselves, we keep on changing during all our lives.

Is high rise development always evitable? Is it never appropriate?

No, no, no, high rise as typology has inherent limitations as well as opportunities, but for what context is that appropriate, for example, for the squatter settlements, poor people,

their dependence on land is much higher, their mutual neighbour interdependence is much higher, and their capability to maintain their anti-gravity services is very low, so in such context if I build high rise, for them to maintain the elevator, to pump water, to clean the collective spaces, to manage the security, the typology is not appropriate. There have been case studies here in Ahmedabad where they relocated people from slums into 6 or 7 stories buildings with no terrace and in order to cook their food they will use the landing of the staircase.

It is all about whether it is appropriate or not. For example, Marina City in Chicago, when in the downtown security was an issue at that point in time, I could not afford individually security guards for myself but being in a high rise community allowed people to do so, because it was collectively affordable. As a collective neighbourhood, all together we can afford it.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the type alone; you have to understand the place and the people, so that you can apply it accordingly. And in Ahmedabad we still donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a regulatory understanding of high rise, in terms of security, fire, build form etc. our regulation is not ready to face this kind of issues, however we are still encouraging this kind of buildings.

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 2 5

cturing so that you picking what is the d leaving others to n time â&#x20AC;?

2 6 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

Are our streets for humans or for machines?

Indian streets have always been the people’s realm, that’s why I’ve always called it a civic space, not a vehicular conduct, however in today’s time it has become a bipolar existence, you have pedestrian and you have vehicular, you have informal and you have formal, you have the built and you have the void, and the good street is the one that balances and accommodates all this. For example, the adjunct plaza, which is pedestrian but it’s accessible to the vehicular, so it is not disturbed by the vehicle and yet it is in a way connected to the main networks. Or like a perpendicular street, like Las Ramblas in Barcelona, where you have a road which has diversity and comfortable to walk without the fear of being run over.

So, if in India we have a penetration of cars in 8% of the population, should we built roads for cars or for the 92% remaining? But this faces with the regulation where the proportion is inversed, in a 60 m road the designated footpath is of 75cm, and that is ridiculous, and sometimes we will have a lamp post or a tree, therefore there is no space for people to walk and therefore there is a conflict.

Urban appropriation in India is possible thanks to the lack of regulation among other reasons, but in an extensively regulated context how can we recover virtues like flexibility and adaptability?

It has to be an in between, it doesn’t have to be as strict as Singapore but it doesn’t have to be as casual as Mumbai, where formal and informal coexist. There has to be clarity about these roles, even in North American malls, they’ve realized that people don’t want to go

such as a spontaneous dancer or a street juggler, or there are kiosk that bring variety and they are the trendy ones, they sell this jewellery or this phone covers, which the formal system may not be able to provide.

It is the planned informal of the formal unplanned, a combination of both is how we have to do it. If we include the informal in our planning we are winning an asset for the plan and the project. It’s not only about selling it’s about providing places for people to participate, that is what makes European cities quite great, where we can find the coexistence. Most of the cities in which we like to be and visit, is not the inside of the informal restaurant what we like, is the public realm of the city. Leave room for the spontaneous.

Was any time gone by better? Or worse?

Every time is our time, it’s not to live in the past, but at the same time not to forget our past. We always believe in cyclic time, and the aspect that I like about cyclic time is that if I’m here today I don’t forget the yesterday but at the same time I don’t stop dreaming for tomorrow. If I see time I will adjust today with my evolution from yesterday and

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there anymore, so for variety they’ve brought the informal sector, formalized informal,

my aspirations. I always say a mantra for us “Inspired from yesterday and aspire for tomorrow”. Time is not a static phenomenon, as I speak time has passed by, but if I don’t build on that past, if I don’t learn from that past I’m being fool and arrogant. But if I only live in the past, that is also not right. I would say that certain aspects, the values that we have lost which we felt where there in the past, if we don’t bring them back we would have lost something which was good, whether it was ethical values, whether it was human to human bond, because now we live in an absolute era of distrust, we’ve stop caring and sharing, it’s not that I’m your enemy it’s that I don’t care about you. Disparity was always

2 8 i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya

there but we could live together. Existence is a correlation of human to human and human to nature, and in this equation the kind of ways of life that we used to follow were in some ways more sustainable. Progress further but don’t repeat the errors from yesterday.

It is also good to think about something, if without such dependencies people could live happily, are we then becoming slaves of things that we’ve created today by dependence on that? Then are we evolving or are we regressing? It is that factor that we should understand, and live in today, think of tomorrow and remember yesterday, I think it’s a holistic experience.

What are Yatin’s worries today?

My concerns are not special, one, I would like to be a human being who doesn’t burden someone and can do my part as to the best of my ability and possibility, whether as a human being or as a professional or as a teacher, that’s why I like to be involved in different tasks and I play different roles, so what I have, if I’m able to share both about not to do what I’ve done as a mistake, as well as what might be useful. It’s basically the concern that you are not all by yourself, you are a part of nature and you are part of the society and anything you do you have an obligation to these two.

In my work, here in the practice, what we are always thinking is about sustainability, timelessness, affordability and appropriateness to cultural ethos, if you keep that kind of holistic equation in mind, this will keep you exploring, thinking and young.

Are you optimistic about the future?

Yes I’m always optimistic with young people, because they are the ones that are going to

create the world in which I live and that’s the investment I’m doing. But I’m pessimistic about the directions, that top-down, whether is authorities, whether is by-laws, whether is rules, of the world. We are numbers and we are no one as we are, and those things keep me frustrated that as human beings we are not anyone, only part of a big something. Your generation has to revolve and throw these things down, so it’s there why I have to invest in young people, things today are in despair but tomorrow they could be improving,

“ Every time is our time, it’s not to live in t h e p a s t, b u t at the same time not to forget our past ”

i n t e r v i e w w i t h P R O F. yat i n p a n d ya 2 9

keeping in mind the balance that keeps us rooted in ground.

Experience

Information

The student is subjected to a shock

Through the contact and exchange of

through the discovery, experimentation

ideas with authoritative voices, among

and the tour around the new

which are both local experts and external

environments, cultures and ways of

agents, the participant is exposed to other

understanding reality, creating a context

people’s positions and discover different

vision based on experience.

realities to those experienced firsthand.

(1,2,5,7,8,10,20,24)

(3,9,13,15,16,18,22)

day 1

day 4

Visit to old city (1)

Visit to Modhera (8)

30 a methodology

day 5 day 1 Patang restaurant (2)

“Vitality of Indian Cities & Living Environment” by Yatin Pandya (9)

day 1 “Concepts of Space in Indian Architecture” by Yatin Pandya (3)

day 7 Studio Work (11)

day 6

day 3

Dhuleti (festival of colours) (10)

Site visit (6)

day 9 “Architecture evolution & thematic spaces” by Neelkanth Chhaya (13)

day 2 Ahmedabad visit (5)

day 2 Photo Project India (4)

day 3 Vishala Restaurant Gujarati Food (7)

Analysis

Production

The participant flies from final analysis,

Active production allows to ask ourselves

to understand that part of the learning

questions that we would only be able to

process is based on their ability to

arise after a longer period of reflexion.

observe, analyze, discuss and re-think

(4,11,14,19,23)

about the context. (6,12,17,21)

day 7

day 24

Site visit (12)

Final Presentation (23)

day 13

day 10

day 18 Matrix analysis (21)

day 17

Experiential Installations (14)

Trip to Diu (20)

day 24 Jury with N.Chhaya, N.Patel & Y.Pandya (22)

day 12 Site visit (17)

day 15 Studio Work (19)

day 11 “Lessons from Traditional architecture” by Nimish Patel (15)

day 12 “Sustainability in Indian Context” by Yatin Pandya (16)

day 26 Final Dinner at Karnavatti (24)

a methodology 31

“Energy Management in Vernacular Arch.” by Rajan Raval (18)

HTTP://PHOTOPROJEC

A mixed bag where the photographic material produced by the participants in the workshop is showed.

TINDIA.TUMBLR.COM/

DEVJI SARIYA NI POL Urban Surgery Cruz, Elena ·/ Huélamo, Elia ·/ Jani, Utsavi ·/ Páramo, Teresa ·/ Sánchez, Alberto ·/

The old city of Ahmedabad. Narrow and irregular streets, hidden connections

34 DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol

between spaces, stairs, activity and people is the framework in which we find the district of Devji Sariya Ni Pol.

After analyzing the interior of the Pol, its people, its activities and schedules, problems and opportunities, a public space project rises. Motorbikes conquered the space, animals move everywhere and people do not have space for their activities. A surgery to control urban community spaces increasing the public space by removing ruined buildings, relocation of the temple and the emergence of a new topography that prioritizes spaces.

Horizontal planes prevent motorcycles movements, classified spaces in five different main “plazas” and connect public spaces with houses. The front space of the houses is for dwellers the core of their activities: a limit not drawn that controls and dominates the street.

Activity Mapping

Land uses

Models

Morning

DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol 35

Afternoon

Evening

Space usage

Materials structure & construction

Brick

structure & construction

Dish washing Dish washing

clothes washing clothes washing

ironing ironing

meeting point meeting point

game playing game playing

metal workshop metal workshop

festivals festivals

animals animals

Cement

Concrete

Wood

Steel

terraces & balconies

cooking cooking

terraces & balconies

Wood Brick Cement Concrete

Concrete

Metal cover

Steel

Patios & floors

roof tops

temple temple

clothe drying

Stone

clothe drying

Concrete

metal cover

Steel

36 DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol

SQUARE 3 Temple+open gathering religious space

SQUARE 3

Function: religious use

Action: reducir altura plataforma árbol + inserción del templo en relación con este espacio Neighbour gathering space + Temple, Character: semi-privado

open gathering religious Architecture:space calidad de espacios en

relación

Function: festivity and neighbours use Action: to reduce the tree-platform level + new temple insertion in relation with that space Character: semi-private (neighbourhood) Architecture: bleachers + central space

The briefs of the project were to relocate trades and manufactures in the main street, to increase public space, to insert some new places for common activities and to maximize the opportunities that exist in the Pol. SQUARE 1 Central square

SQUARE 2 Coworking center

Function: main activities related to big events (incluinding people from outside the POL) and festive days Action: space gradually organice by privacity levels (inserting levels) Character: public (neighbours and noneigbours) Architecture: central space+bleachers (theater)

Function: multiuses inser building Action: new insert in a ruin space due to its particular position Character: public , semi-private Architecture: in relation with POL's tradidional construction within sustainability and innovation

SQUARE 1 Central square

SQUARE 2 Coworking center

બધા અહીં ખરીદી

0.80

0.60

0.20

0.40

0.20

0.00

બધા અહીં ખરીદી

0.80

0.60

DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol 37

+0.00

Levels (from 0.00 to 0.80)

+0.20

+0.30

COMMERCIAL STREET

Function: Workshops and commerces Action: move all commercial use to this area Character: public Architecture: introduce installatios to prractice this activities

III+r

V+r III

V+r

+0.40

III

IV+r

+0.50 V+r

space for vehicles

III+r +0.60 III

III

SQUARE 1 Central square

+0.60

+0.00

III

+0.20

III

+0 +0.60 +0.40

+0.20 III

II +0.00

P II

38 DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol

III

Water system IV III IV

III

III III

Vegetation dwellings (d) manufacture (m)

DEADEND

Private-semipublic gathering space

manufacture+commerce (m+c) Vegetation

DEADEND

Private-semipublic gathering space

Land Use dwellings (d) manufacture (m) manufacture+commerce (m+c)

The topographic strategy prioritizes public spaces dividing them into more public and open areas for activities such as trade, events and workshops for people from outside and inside the Pol; semiprivate areas for religious holidays or festivals; and private areas for personal use.

+0.00

III

III +0.00

+0.40

COMMERCIAL STREET

Function: Workshops and commerces Action: move all commercial use to this area Character: public Architecture: introduce installatios to prractice this activities

III III

III

private space

semiopen space

+0.60

III

+0.30

+0.20 +0.00

III

semiprivate space

III

+0.60

private space

III

open-public space

+0.30

semiopen space

III

+0.60

+0.30

SQUARE 2 Coworking center

+0.60

+0.00

II III

+0.40 +0.20 +0.00

+0.00 +0.40

III+r

III

0.20

III

+0.20 +0.00

+0.20 III

+0.00 III

+0.60

P IV

III

new construction

III

+0.40

II III

+0.60

III

+0.00

III

IV II

new construction

+0.20

IV III

+0.20

SQUARE 3 Temple+open gathering religious space

Function: religious use Action: reducir altura plataforma árbol + inserción del templo en relación con este espacio Character: semi-privado Architecture: calidad de espacios en relación P

g+IV II

III

III +0.40

+0.40 +0.40

g+IV

III

+0.20

III

bleachers III

III+r III

III+r III+r

SQUARE 3 Neighbour gathering space

Function: festivity and neighbours use Action: reducir altura plataforma árbol + inserción del templo en relación con este espacio Character: semi-private (neighbourhood) Architecture: bleachers + central space P

III

IV IV

III+r III III

III

III+r III

II +0.60 +0.40

+0.20 III

III IV III

III

SQUARE 4 Blind square

Function: activate activities in desert areas. Space for kids Action: transform to increase urban movement. Activate Character: public (neighbourhood) Architecture: insert levels and urban furniture

DEVJI SARIYA Ni Pol 39

+0.60

III

new construction

+0.40

the lives of and you “Sometimes you have to put yourself in others’ shoes”, is probably one of the tritest expressions of our society, but sometimes, you actually have to put yourself in others’ shoes. It is not a position that has to do 40 the lives of the others and you

with the condescension but the understanding, and not only to understand the other, but to understand ourselves. Changing perspective and dealing with situations that we think have little to do with our circumstances can lead - and in many cases does - to a better understanding of our own reality, because although we believe we are far away from each other, we are very close in fact.

From a professional point of view, what is the end of going to another country, a radically opposed country, where the logics, the by-laws, the know-how, the technologies, the language, the culture, has nothing to do with your own context? What is it that can be translated from one place to the other? Why is this important in the architectural and urban professional field?

The challenges we are facing in our days, as a whole society and as professionals, are increasingly global and present in time: population growth, production and supplies, unbridled growth of the increasingly emerging cities and the heritage that many others have left us after years of expansion, the environmental cost that this entails, and the imbalances and inequality that produces. As architects and urban planners, it is essential to understand the scale of these challenges, so we can act locally from a needed global perspective, understanding the complexity involved when trying to implement strategies that address the many issues we face, in their different contexts. And we have stopped believing in unique solutions to various problems, always complex problems. We need solutions specific to its context, contexts

others that are always unknown, or at least not enough known. And hence, the need to learn those tools that allow us to position ourselves in the place of the other, that allow us to introduce and immerse ourselves in these new environments, constantly changing environments for which we are unable to predict future events. We must learn new methodologies to work in the uncertainty, in the undefined, in the unexpected and unpredictable.

And hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the paradox, it seems that when approaching other cultures we question differently our own context, realizing that we often

environment. And we may be unfair when approaching other realities with less prejudices and a more open minded attitude. And so the importance of moving away, looking with perspective to the bubble in which each of us is submerged.

We have much to learn from us and from the others, we just need to learn how to observe, to analyse, and to adapt, learn to understand each situation in its own context, in order to extract the sap that gives us the best exportable values. Let us take advantage of this connected world we have, to live other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives and learn from them, and that others may live our lives and learn from them.

Living the lives of others, and how their lives change ours and our relationship with the context that surrounds us. So it is that life and us, and you, the lives of others and you.

the lives of the others and you 41

assume as realities what are only fractional views of our immediate

NANSHA JIVA NI POL Actioni contrariam semper & aequalem esse reactionem Cotoner, Alejandra ·/ Crespo, Juan ·/ Pro, Ana ·/ Rathod, Kartik ·/ Zabala, Sandra ·/

42 nansha jiva ni pol

Within the frenetic historical core of Ahmedabad, Nansha Jivan ni Pole is consolidated as a familiar redoubt, in which the human relationships are the ones which generate the architecture of the small neighbourhood. The “pol” works as a big net of connections which becomes activated by any external stimulus, displaying this community-lifestyle. However, its urban structure does not answer in a right way to these interfamiliar connections. The fabric is mainly configurated by a large open-space vinculated to the access; which does not work as a proper public space due to morfological reasons and lack of privacy and centrality. Three dead-end streets which give access to the housing start from this place. Their character generates a fragmented communication system. In this way, the aim of the proposal is to give back the communitary sense to Nansha Jiven ni Pole by the reconfiguration of the open-space network. A strategy of urban surgery is followed. By small interventions in the main square, occupation of empty plots and rehabilitation of a heritage building, the patterns of communication become more complex. Two new movement systems are created: a topographic and an aereal.

nansha jiva ni pol 43

44 nansha jiva ni pol

nansha jiva ni pol 45

46 nansha jiva ni pol

nansha jiva ni pol 47

Clac is the sound of chairs stacking

Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a meeting room; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a living room eating biscuits; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a studio; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a classroom; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a conference room, Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a cinema; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a diner; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a showroom ; Clac, clac, clac, clac, we are in a bedroom.

I once saw a cow eating garbage

48 stories

We were coming down from the apartment and we werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t surprised by the bovid standing there. It was when I passed a few meters away from her that I realized that she was eating junk that was piled in the corner of the street. The truth is that the cow was not especially fat, but she seemed to be enjoying. I kept on looking and saw that the cow came every three or four days, I could recognize her because she had a stain in her back that reminded me of the Nike logo. I also noticed that the people leaving in that alley left the garbage always in the same place. The cow kept coming back.

HA- HA

This is how Yatin laughed when any of us will throw water at h received us in his home to celebrate Holi. We threw water and

tidies up her saari, misplaced with the rotation of her body while she was trying to turn

-Should I move it a little bit to the right? Now?- says a lady on top of a wooden ladder. She

stories 49

The bar at the corner

the satellite dish to tune in the red carpet of some Bollywood award show.

It was on the corner that leads into the dead end street where we lived. A man in his fifties came every morning on a bicycle in which he almost does not fit because the whole back is occupied by a huge wooden box that houses inside: shortbread,

colors with his family, with his brother, his wife and son.

Maggi noodles, casseroles and a camping gas. It is one of my favorite places in

him or put some colors in his head. Loud, really loud. He

Ahmedabad, and it doesn’t even exist, a corner with a bench made of recomposed tiles where every day a one-armed man with the ability to tie knots to a bag of chai with one hand gets installed. It is the neighborhood’s bar but it comes and goes, and at night drivers of rickshaws sit on the bench, taking his empty space, just waiting. If he goes to the bathroom someone that’s hanging out there will give you the change, either, despite having two arms, they won’t be able to close your chai takeaway. He does not talk much but comes and goes, and in the morning, you will find sitting on the bench the pigeon caretaker who lives next door and uses his space to feed them.

Does it show now?

NAGAR WADO POL hogar dulce hogar Carrasco, Alba ·/ De Vreese, Paul-Adrien ·/ Gil, Carmen ·/ Ravichandran, Ragul ·/ Velilla, Patricia ·/

50 NAGAR WADO POL

At first glance we could notice that Nagar Wado was not like the other poles. Due to its small size and its introverted character, this Pol has been able to maintain the original qualities of the poles through time. Nagar Wado can be understood as a strong community that lives among a central public space; a single entrance keeps the Pol isolated from the busy city centre. Our intervention tries to upgrade the cycle of daily activities that take place, always in close relation with the public space. We transform the central space of the Pol and recover the limits of the new square. Water will be the main organizer element. Also we recover the lost thresholds of the houses as a space to relate and as transition between the public and the private. All this intervention leads to the introduction of a new community dynamic in which all take part of the development process and of the maintenance of the upgraded spaces. Their lacks on activities and facilities are solved, and at the same time new interests are generated, new spaces for opportunities appear and the neighbourhood gets involved in its own future.

NAGAR WADO POL 51

52 NAGAR WADO POL

Main intervention

Faรงade analysis

interactive wall

sun protection

ventilation towers

NAGAR WADO POL 53

Interactive wall

Public Space and sun filter

54 NAGAR WADO POL

Faรงade intervention

Faรงade analysis

The house threshold is a key element in the daily life of this pol. The pubic space will be reactivated by the recovery of these transitions between public and private spaces where neighbors meet, commerce happen and children

TRADITIONAL FAÇADES

RENEWED FAÇADES

! ! ! Threshold Balconies Sunshades

IMPROVES COMMUNITY AND RELATIONS

No Threshold No Balconies No Sunshades

INTROVERTED HOUSES. POL’S LIFE DECAYS

NAGAR WADO POL 55

play.

Photo Credit: Almudena BallarĂn

Nimish Patel

“it is not always about knowing what you have to do, but knowing what you don’t have to do”

DEV NI SHERI Pon un pol en tu vida

·/ Ballarín Torres, Almudena ·/ Blanco Imperiali, Nehuén ·/ Blanco Marote, Adriana ·/ Gladson, Daniel ·/ Rodríguez Sánchez, Aurea

Dev Ni Sheri has an important characteristic that comes explained in its own name, Sheri, which in Gujarati means “road”. The pol has a main

58 DEV NI SHERI

road/artery that connects two important streets: the Gandhi Road with Manek Chowk and Raipur. This causes a continious vehicular flow aswell as noise and disturbance to the pol.

With the increasing and fast development of the city, open spaces are nowadays occupied by cars, rickshaws and motorbikes; leaving only reduced spaces to the members to socialize and interact. Moreover, new constructions have appeared without respecting its character and identity. The aim of our project was to come up with a solution to the noisy road, providing new open spaces to celebrate, socialize and relax as well as to bring back the pols identity using vegetation to reinterpretate the ancient constructions and educate the inhabitants in new ways to use their private and public open spaces.

The pol would have a multifunctional study center with orchards and classes, a sacred space for big celebrations and gatherings, organized parking spaces and a relaxing small space. Vegetation will be present in all of these, treated in different ways.The idea is to encourage the people to take care of their open spaces, educate them and make them, within time, maintain their pols richness and identity.

DEV NI SHERI 59

3 Principal intervetions

General plan N

P E

Main street

Parking space

Semi public edge

Neighbourhood vs Neighbourly

60 DEV NI SHERI

Neighbourly

ખુલ્લી વીજળી

વેચી

DEV NI SHERI 61

Neighbourly

અમારી સાથે આવો

62 DEV NI SHERI

Neighbourhood

ભાડું / વેચી

Public space

10 years

getation + chards

Vegetation

Public activity

After 10 years Rooftop activation + public space + vegetation

After 10 years Orchards Vegetation + Orchards

Rooftop activation

DEV NI SHERI 63

After 10 years

you b

tue

HAJIRA NI POL A conversation with legacy Álvarez Olivé, Susana ·/ Bhanushali, Jay ·/ Castañs Betes, Carmen ·/ Cue Albert, Ana·/ Villalobos Violán, Marina ·/

In order to describe a city one has to describe the past of the city; a legacy to be carry forward with impressions of the present epoch.

66 HAJIRA Ni Pol

Hajira ni pol is the result of a beautiful coexistence of layers as old as 450 years from the Islamic tomb (Hajira) to the present human settlement of Hindu community. Architecture is seen as a platform for social interaction; traversing from public - semi public - private thresholds with its highly metamorphic spaces for public usage, and a related built space for more definite communal activities. Accordingly, the intervention aims to restructure the heart of the pol with a raised podium at lower level for multiple public usages. This podium segregates pedestrian and vehicular traffic, freeing the public-life axis between the Hajira and the new building. At upper level ever-changing workspace is set for people in the pol to do their craftwork collectively.

The urban acupuncture strategy continues by redefining several empty plots as pol’s infrastructures. Connections between heritage structures are enhanced to promote heritage awareness among people, and new uses are introduced to integrate them on pol’s daily life. Lastly, guidelines and improvements for otlas are given to strengthen the connection of private and public domain.

5 4

6 2

Reusing existent buildings / plots

Urban insertion

Pedestrian public life axis

HAJIRA Ni Pol 67

URBAN STRATEGIES

CATALOG OF INTERVENTIONS

1. Relocated parking 2. Resource management plot 3. Revitalizing the temple - linked to the pulic axis 4. Public open space - play area + vegetation 5. Reusing the heritage - the tomb becomes a library 6. Urban inserction - community space

FEATURES TO IMPROVE

Cleaniless

Lack of greenery

68 HAJIRA Ni Pol

Visual connections

Unregulated parking

Residents

BEFORE

HAJIRA Ni Pol 69

Outsiders

Pedestrian area

Gambling space

Outsiders

Pedestrian area

Residents

Gambling space

Gate access

Gambling space

FEATURES TO STRENHTH Heritage awareness Informal markets Semi-public spaces

Traffic and parking regulation AFTER

INTERVENTIONS

70 HAJIRA Ni Pol

Reusing heritage

Redefiing ‘otla’

Revitalizing the Temple

Resource management

Enhancing open spaces

Community space

Folding wooddoors and windows

AA’ CLOSED

HAJIRA Ni Pol 71

BB’ OPEN

AA’

BB’

Photo Credit: Sandra Zabala

JETHABAI NI POL

Typological public space Corrales Pérez, Laura / Esteban González, Mónica / González Aranguren, Belén / Herreros Cantis, Ana / Sha, Aniket /

Our first approach to Jethabai Ni Pol aimed to discover its intrinsecal character, studying both

74 jethabai Ni Pol

the way of life in the neighbourhood and the architectural and urban environment.With this purpose we developed an exhaustive analysis based on the form factor (housing typologies and their mechanisms) and the time factor (social survey of habits and necessities).

Based on these conclusions we divided our intervention in two basic fields: urban and architectural. The urban strategy was mainly focused on the lack of proper public space. It consisted on 4points: creation of new gathering plazas, interaction between vertical levels, rooftops net proposal and new underground parking areas. On the architectural side we proposed 3types of intervention: civic centres integrated in the two existing half-built concrete buildings, reuse of empty spaces in traditional houses (aiming to attract young people) and rehabitalization of new typologies with public spaced for the neighbourhood.

{1,2,30

urban strategy architectural strategy

}

public space ruin 2 100% public space

0b 0a

parking areas zone a zone b

private space single house 20% public space semi public apartments 30% public space

traditional divided house

ruin 1

school 1

-100m2 empty rooms

-350m2 empty space

-30 m2 courtyards

-22m2 courtyards -good circulation

-good ventilation -good circulation

-humid core according to modular estructure

small traditional house -5 m2 courtyard -good circulation

- bad crossing points

school 2

new block

ruin 2

-no empty space

-200m2 empty space

-20 m2 courtyards -humid core according to modular estructure - bad crossing points

-humid core according to modular estructure -good circulation

-good ventilation -good circulation

apartments 10% public space

10 traditional house -good ventilation -good circulation -20 m2 courtyards -100m2 empty rooms

two door private house -47 m2 empty roof -8 m2 courtyard

bridge house - bad crossing points -no empty space -shared rooms - bad crossing points

11 jainist temple -humid core according to modular estructure -good ventilation -good circulation

jethabai Ni Pol 75

ruin 1 100% public space

76 jethabai Ni Pol

jethabai Ni Pol 77

{1,2,30 {1,2,30

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

empty rooms inside the houses

urban strategy architectural strategy

}

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

empty rooms inside the houses

roof of comunity houses

{1,2,30

urban strategy architectural strategy

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

}

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

empty rooms inside the houses

roof of comunity houses

students rooms

spaces inside the houses that have been abandoned because of the young people migration movements. They have been thought to be rented or to be used as guest rooms for build new relationships between the pol old people and the young new people.

students rooms

urban strategy DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES roof of comunity houses architectural strategy

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

}

cooking and meeting comunity places

spaces on the comunity new houses roofs for gathering people living in the same building that have never do any community activities together. This will increase the community sense.

cooking and meeting comunity places DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

spaces inside the houses that have been abandoned because of the spaces on the comunity new houses roofs for gathering people living empty rooms in the top floor young people migration movements. They have been thought to be in the same building that have never do any community activities rented or to be used as guest rooms for build new relationships together. This will increase the community sense. between the pol old people and the young new people.

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

78 jethabai Ni Pol

empty rooms in the top floor

students rooms

cooking and meeting comunity places

spaces on the comunity new houses roofs for gathering people living in the same building that have never do any community activities together. This will increase the community sense.

DESIGNS DEPENDING ON THE USES

empty rooms in the top floor

drying clothes and meeting places

empty spaces in the top floor of the private houses that can offer to the house new uses and ways of living them. Only by removing the walls and making the wind and the sun go inside the house, the clothes can be dried in the same unique space and no al around the house.

drying clothes and meeting places

resting places with sky openings

this empty spaces can also being used for resting and meeting most of all in the summer time, when indian people use to go to sleep in the rooftops.

resting places with sky openings

this empty spaces can also being used for resting and meeting most of all in the summer time, when indian people use to go to sleep in the rooftops.

resting places with sky openings

this empty spaces can also being used for resting and meeting most of all in the summer time, when indian people use to go to sleep in the rooftops.

3a 3b

third floor

flexible area: drying food/ sleeping/

second floor library

1st floor

children area

street level vendors area

jethabai Ni Pol 79

programatic roof

80 udal dal papads recipe

UDAD DAL PAPADS

1/2 kg - Udad flour For Masala: 1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp - Ajwain seeds 1/4 tsp - Papad khar Salt to taste Oil

1. Add all the masalas except oil to the

2. Bind together to form a very hard dough by adding water. 3. Cover and keep aside for 2 hours at least. 4. Apply little oil, knead the dough by hammering with a heavy pestle to make the dough softer. 5. Make equal size balls. 6. Roll out each ball on a rolling board with the help of rolling pins in a circular movement. 7. Apply oil if papad tends to stick on rolling board. Repeat with the remaining balls. 8. Dry the papad in direct sunlight. 9. Remove.

udal dal papads recipe 81

urad flour. Mix well.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;the wonde of process a differen architec architectu able to

erful sense can inspire nt kind of cture, an ure that is changeâ&#x20AC;? Neelkanth Chhaya