[ PA R A - S I T U AT I O N ] A H M E D A B A D D A N C E F LOORS AND AQUA FISSURES Julia Brookfield / s1516235 Design Report Studio Leaders:
Dr Dorian Wiszniewski Kevin Adams
D AN C E F LO O RS A ND A QUA F ISSURES
page 3
CONTENTS: DANCE FLOORS AND AQUA FISSURES
THESIS ABSTRACT Dance Floors and Aqua Fissures GLOSSARY Bharatanatyam terms
page 7 page 11
INTRODUCTION Studio Ahmedabad Ethos
page 13
FRAMEWORK Gestures of Hand and Heel
page 17
PA R T I : H E E L [ That of the ground]
Co-author Desmond Su
[1.1]
A Dry, Walled City Oceans of Wetness
page 23
[1.2]
A Fissured Edge Re-gesturing the Riverbank
page 31
[1.3]
A Ground for the Heel The Green Marble Dance Floor
page 41
[1.4]
From the Ground Materiality and Locality
page 51
[1.5]
Mediating the Maidan Flooding Ground
page 59
PA R T I I : H A N D
PA R T I I I : D I S C O U R S E
[ That of the sky]
[Means of Making]
[2.1]
The Looming Monsoon Systems of Water Capture
[3.1] Gesturing
page 139
page 75
[2.2]
Aridity and Air Finding and Flailing Shade
[3.2] Animating
page 141
page 83
[3.3] Suspending
page 143
[2.3].
Ascending Spaces Thinness within Thickness
page 97
[2.4].
Rhythmic Illuminations Performativity of Light
page 109
[2.5]
Performing to the Sabarmati Opening stages to the River
page 121
CONCLUSION A Bharatanatyam Enquiry
page 143
page 5
Heel: That of the Ground
Hand: That of the Sky
THESIS ABSTRACT Dance Floors and Aqua Fissures proposes an architecture for the performance of the Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam by taking a mantle from the narrative gestures of Hand and Heel which are used to communicate a Bharatanatyam performance.1 As part of the translation of gesture, architectural interventions become a repository for the passing of knowledge of the Bharatanatyam language. The 2016 Sabarmati Riverfront project laid 11.25 km of concrete bulwark and converted Ahmedabad’s once meandering river edge into automotive infrastructure.2 As part of the imprint of the project, the stage of The Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, a national sanctuary for the practice of Bharatanatyam was severed from the river. In response, this thetic enquiry roots from the green marble dance floor of Darpana, fissuring and hanging architecture which reconnect to the Sabarmati. The gestures of Heel and Hand become a framework for invention. The Heel, as that of the ground and the Hand, as that of the sky operate across scales and inform the proportionality of both spaces and systems. Hence, the wondrous narrative of Bharatanatyam, brings together a range of forces to the Sabarmati riverfront, in a gestural blurring of wetness.
1 Mrinalini Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam (Ahmedabad: A Darpana Publication, 2018), 1-8. 2 Amrita Shah, Ahmedabad, A City in The World (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 51.
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GL O S S A RY
Bharatanatyam: A classical dance “usually performed by a solo woman dancer. The songs are purely devotional love songs, the dancer being the devotee and God, the beloved.”3 Fissure: “In a land of great rivers, the 371-kilometre-long Sabarmati is a modest entity. Its name, said to be derived from the word “shvabra”, meaning “fissure”, suggests a cavity, appropriately, for the Sabarmati is marked by recurrent spells of dryness that turn it into a thin, sad trickle of mica and sometimes cause it to disappear altogether.”4 Gestures: Non-verbal, bodily forms of communication. This passing of language through gesture is both accessible and rich. It is the underpinning of the Bharatanatyam dance form.5 This thesis draws the use of gesture to operate across scales and inform the proportionality of both architectural spaces and systems. Mudra: “Language through expressive gestures of the hands is one of the oldest forms of communication. From the time of the Vedas, the mudra or symbol of the hand was utilised in scared recitation.”6
3 4 5 6
Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 4. Shah, Ahmedabad, A City in The World, 30. Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 1-41. Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 80.
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PAR A - SI TU ATI ONS // The Old, New and Peripheral Cities of AHmedabad
INTRODUCTION STUDIO AHMEDABAD ETHOS
“We use the notion of parasituation to consider a broad network of water-sensitive agencies and the defined and flexible limits of their territorialities.”7 This thetic enquiry sits within the broader scaffold of the Parasituation research series. As part of this line of research-by-design studios, this thesis meditates socio-political and environmental tensions through architectural speculations. The Ahmedabad studio ethos is broadly framed by a conception of Giorgio Agamben’s paradigm as that which “operates at the intersection of a critical evolution of its historical prefiguration in a newly interpreted situation”.8 It is from Agamben’s notion of the paradigm that the parasituation prefix is credited. Hence this understanding of the city speculation as a loaded entity viewed with new eyes, affords an opportunity for architecture to develop in parallel with existing urban tensions. The architectural speculations communicated in this thesis therefore do not attempt to dismantle the existing tensions but instead to reveal them. This thesis elaborates an architecture borne of a socio-political, environmental and tectonic study of Bharatanatyam dance, along the Sabarmati River, Ahmedabad.
7
Dorian Wiszniewski, PARA-Situation [Ahmedabad] “Past present Possible” Studio Brief 2019. 8 Wiszniewski, [Ahmedabad] “Past present Possible”, 2019.
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H EE L //
The Green Marble Assembly Hall Dance Floor is the ground on which the students train at the Darpana Academy of Perfroming Arts
A B H A R ATA N AT YA M F R A M E W O R K : GESTURES OF HAND AND HEEL
This thetic enquiry is underpinned by an understanding of the Bharatanatyam Gestures of Hand and Heel. Bharatanatyam is believed to be one of the oldest forms of classical dance in India, and is performed as a sacred act of worship. However, in its history Bharatanatyam has also been weaponised in an act of social control. Under British occupation, the practice of Bharatanatyam was made illegal.9 This thetic enquiry speculates how this loaded context may be alternatively presented within Ahmedabad by offering expanded provision for both the performance and education of Bharatanatyam across the city of Ahmedabad in attempt to ramify its re-seeding. As a dance communicated through intricate footwork and mudras, the gestures of Heel and Hand become a framework for tectonic invention. The Heel, is perceived as that of the ground and the Hand, as that of the sky. Hence this design report follows two narratives in the dry, walled city of Ahmedabad: the socio-environmental demands of the heel, and the socio-environmental demands of the hand. These complimentary narratives hence form the first two parts of the design report and each present an oscillation between furrows into the then developed tectonics of hand and of heel.
9
Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 11-80.
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
PA R T I
HEEL [ T H AT O F T H E G R O U N D ]
[1.1]
A Dry, Walled City Oceans of Wetness
[1.2]
A Fissured Edge Re-gesturing the Riverbank
[1.3]
A Ground for the Heel The Green Marble Dance Floor
[1.4]
From the Ground Materiality and Locality
[1.5]
Mediating the Maidan Flooding Ground
The Bharatanatyam dancer begins her training by first learning a prayer to Mother Earth.
“ You, the Earth, Supporter of All, Worshipped by Devatas, Praised by Enlightened ones, Protecting those who seek your shelter, To you I come to humbly pray, Mother, bear upon thyself the beat of my feet.”
Mrinalini Sarabhai, (Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam 28)
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HE E L // The Green Marble Assembly Hall Dance Floor is the ground on which the students train at the Darpana Academy of Perfroming Arts
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Ram Gate provides an opening to the old city . The ground which is segrated from the river is so lacking moisture, the trees instead root within the Old walls
// [ 1 . 1 ] A D R Y, WA L L E D C I T Y OCEANS OF WETNESS
Ahmedabad is a city defined by two sets of walls. The Old Walls are a circumambulation of dense and long standing gated communities, known as pols. In parallel, a second set of walls, laid as part of the Sabarmati Riverfront project canalise the once temporal river10. This thesis therefore opens with an enquiry into the relationship between the dry, sun scorched city and the walls which have endeavoured to governor the Sabarmati river. 10 Architecture in Development, N.D. Pol Houses, accessed December 20, 2019, https://www. architectureindevelopment.org/
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Drawing the Sabarmati River as a dry fissure traversed by dance florrs
Co-authors Desmond Su and Iona Hoggarth
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
PARA- SITUATION I: VADAJ STEPWELL
A DRY CITY //
PARA- SITUATION II: DARPANA ACADEMY
PARA-SITUATION III: RAVIVARI BAZAAR
T H E S A B A R MAT I R IV E R “The Sabarmati River is 371km long and has always been the defining feature of Ahmedabad” (Yagnik & Sheth 2011, 298)
F IGU R ES 1 & 2 //
Astodia Gate and Arial of Ahmedabad
Robert Stephens, Walls of Ahmedabad Exhbition, The Matthew Gallery 2019. The 2016 Sabarmati Riverfront project converted a once meandering river which washed against the Old Walls into a now permanent basin, enclosed by 11.25 km of concrete bulwark and automotive infrastructure.11 This project, or the New Walls of Ahmedabad, is impermeable and hot, reaching 35 degrees even in the winter season. Along the riverfront and across from the Old City, separated by these two sets of walls is a new city. This is a city of advancing westernised practice and ideals. Set against the hyper-gestural architecture of the Old City, the Sabarmati riverfront is a monolithic gesture, operating at a scale seemingly incompatible with the intricacies of the body. 11 Shah, Amrita. Ahmedabad, A City in The World (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 51.
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LIFE IN TH E WA L L S // Scars of displaced communities which were forced to the periphery of the city following the Sabarmati riverfront project
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
FOUR SITUATIONS ACROSS TWO CITIES: 01: Darpana Academy // New City A school for Bharatanatyam dance founded by Mrinalini Sarabhai and her husband Vikram Sarabhai.12 Today it is led by their daughter Mallika who uses the medium of dance for philanthropy and activism within the socio-political context of Ahmedabad. 02: Vadaj Stepwell // New City A dry, closed stepwell. Historically, the stepwell has been host to religious performance and celebration13; a fitting venue for the dancers of Darpana. 03: Bhadra Gate // Old City
04: Ravivari or Gujari Bazaar // Old City A Sunday market which swelled and shrank with the fluctuating banks of the Sabarmati.14 During the land reclamation of the riverfront project, the market was re-housed in an undeviating concrete footprint. 12 Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 1-12. 13 Sheth, Priyanka, Tanvi Jain, and Riyaz Tayyibji. Stepwells Of Ahmedabad - exhibition at Yale Architecture (Ahmedabad: Anthill Design, 2018) https://architexturez.net/doc/az-cf-188335 14 “Sabarmati Riverfront Development all set to rehabilitate Gujari Bazaar.” Times of India, December 22, 2011. Gale General OneFile (accessed May 7, 2021). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A275444302/ITOF?u=ed_ itw&sid=ITOF&xid=583e24da.
The Peripheral City
A hidden entrance to the Old city along the East Bank of the Sabarmati. It houses a community of people which do not belong to the pols of the old city but lie as an informal settlement on the periphery of the long standing communities.
0 2 . VA D A J S T E P W E L L THe New City 0 1 . D A R PA N A A C A D E M Y
0 3 . B H A D R A G AT E THe Old CIty 0 4 . R AV I VA R I B A Z A A R
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// The New Walls of the Sabarmati, a concrete and canalised edge.
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
[1.2] A FISSURED EDGE RE-GESTURING THE RIVERBANK
As part of the imprint of the project, the stage of The Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, a national sanctuary for the practice of Bharatanatyam was severed from the river. The response roots from the green marble dance floor of Darpana, fissuring and hanging architecture which reconnect to the Sabarmati. This architectural enquiry follows positions in Ahmedabad which each mediate a tangled relationship between the calcified gesture of both the new and old walls of the city . Within this thetic enquiry, there four urban situations are defined across the metropolitan landscape of Ahmedabad, they are each tied to an existing architecture and spill along the new walls of the Sabarmati river up to the dry New City of Ahmedabad.
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
D A R PA N A A C A D E M Y A DANCE SCHOOL
Since the closing off of the stage, Darpana is acoustically and visually shielded from the highway which now inhabits the banks of the river. Like many sites of cultural dialogue in Ahmedabad, Darpana appears forced to take on an insular response. The proposed expansion for civic provision for Bharatanatyam follows an enquiry into gestures of hand and heel to re-gesture the monolithic concrete bulwark which severed Darpana- and much of the city- from the Sabarmati.
F I G.1 // Darpana Academy of Performing Arts was founded by Mrinalini Sarabai in 1949
Pramukh Swami Maharaj Marg Highway [2016]
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Darpana Academy of Performing Arts [1949]
Acoustic Wall [2018]
The New City
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
01 [SET]
SHVABRA // FISSURE “In a land of great rivers, the 371-kilometre-long Sabarmati is a modest entity. Its name, said to be derived from the word “shvabra”, meaning “fissure”, suggests a cavity, appropriately, for the Sabarmati is marked by recurrent spells of dryness that turn it into a thin, sad trickle of mica and sometimes cause it to disappear altogether.” (Shah 2015, 30)
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
KEY:
AN URBAN [SET] PROPOSAL [1] [2] [3] [4]
RIV ER EN T R A N CE TO DA R PA N A T H E S A B A R A M T I T H E AT R E RAGA, A SCHOOL FOR MUSIC AN URBAN CINEMA
[5 ] S A B A R M AT I L I B R A R Y [6] ARTISTS STUDIO/RESIDENCES [7] STREET FOOD MARKET
EXISTING CONDITIONS [A] DA R PA N A ACA D EM Y
AQUA FISSURES
PAV EM EN T S CA PE & J E T T Y
P U B L I C S TAG E S
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
Seven Bharatanatyam Situation
Riverfront Elevation
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Figure 3. Darpana Academy
D A R PA N A // Darpana Academy of Performing Arts was founded by Mrinalini Sarabai in 1949
[1.3] A GROUND FOR THE HEEL THE GREEN MARBLE DANCE FLOOR
At the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, the Assembly Hall, a [dance] floor, holds up to three classes simultaneously and alongside each other. Here, at the Assembly Hall, one must remove their shoes before stepping onto the swept and polished dark green, striped surface. The cold surface against the bare foot prepares one for their dance class. It offers an experience of the threshold. This moment does not occur through the puncture of wall but through the sensation of surface. A boundary between each pupil and the tutor materialises as the class begins. On the dark green dance floor, one must never cross this respectful boundary.
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S E V E N B H A R A N AT YA M S I T U AT I O N S / /
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
Throughout our week in Ahmedabad, we came across small fragments of the same green marble dance floor at Darpana within the old city; it was set within the floors of a Jain temple and stretched the length of a covered market. In each location, the presence of this floor brought into focus the dialogic gestural nature of the city, in much the same way as Darpana’s dancers. This enquiry thus re-positions an understanding of the dance floor as a tool for the reintroduction of gestural complexity to the monotonous simplicity of the riverfront, thus underpinning a condition which defines the nature of space through the interplay between tectonic surface and threshold.
KEY:
AN URBAN [SET] PROPOSAL [1] [2] [3] [4]
RIV ER EN T R A N CE TO DA R PA N A T H E S A B A R A M T I T H E AT R E RAGA, A SCHOOL FOR MUSIC AN URBAN CINEMA
[5 ] S A B A R M AT I L I B R A R Y [6] ARTISTS STUDIO/RESIDENCES [7] STREET FOOD MARKET
EXISTING CONDITIONS [A] DA R PA N A ACA D EM Y
PROPOSED GROUND CONDITIONS
AQUA FISSURES
PAV EM EN T S CA PE & J E T T Y
P U B L I C S TAG E S
BRICK COOLING SPINES
[6]
[4]
[3]
[A] [1]
[7]
[5]
The Sabarmati River
[2]
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
[1]
The Sabarmati Theatre Ground Floor Plan
[1]
Seven Bharatanatyam Situations
page 45
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
Gestures of Heel- Stages onto the Sabarmati
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
0
2
4
6
SECTION BB, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
m
B
B
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
[1.4] FROM THE GROUND MATERIALITY AND LOCALITY
“People are not used to seeing so much concrete [he said]. But to carry four million people, the city must be hard.”15 A conversation between Bimal Patel, architect of the Sabarmati Riverfront Project and Amrita Shah. Dance Floors and Aqua Fissures, discusses urban Ahmedabad through the juxtaposition of the blank, concrete monolithic of the new walls of the Sabarmati riverfront and the intense, rich, gestural language encountered along the old city walls of Ahmedabad. Whilst the Patel laid concrete along the banks of the river edge, leaving the Sabarmati to bake under the sun, proposed fissured architectures reinstate the materials of the Old Walls along the New Walls. These are the vernacular, locally sourced and inherently low-carbon materials of brick and timber. As brick is composed of modules at the dimensions of the hand and timber at the dimensions of the growing tree, the material systems intentionally reintroduce a human scale to the seemingly endless, poured concrete edge. 15
Shah, Ahmedabad, A City in The World, 55.
page 51
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
02.
01.
03. B H A D R A G AT E
04.
Life in the Wall Elevation
Elevation at Bhadra Gate, 1:100 [Co-author Iona Hoggarth] Materials of the Old Walls of Ahmedabad
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
0
2
4
6m
SECTION DD, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
D D
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P a r t I :I : HHe ea ln d[ t h [ taht a ot f o tf hteh eg r sokuyn] d ]
S PINES / /
Holding Brick and Hanging Timber
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Interior Stage Perspective of Holding Brick and Hanging Timber
// The Ravivari Bazaar or Sunday Market
[ 1 . 5 ] M E D I AT I N G T H E M A I D A N FLOODING GROUND
As a result of the Sabarmati riverfront project, the Maidan, has been invasively refigured. The Maidan typically refers to the floodplains of South Asian cities which become large public places during the dry seasons.16 This is particularly evident at Situation 04, The Ravivari Bazaar, where the market would once occupy the Maidan. The speculative proposal, Dance Floors andAqua Fissures aspires to reconnect the riverfront to the citizens of Ahmedabad through a series of public situations which are connected through places of planted, floodable ground to reinstate an opportunity for the Maidan to prosper. 16 Dorian Wiszniewski, Argufying Calcutta, Parasituation [Calcutta/Kolkata], (Wedge Publications: Edinburgh, 2019)
page 59
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
0 1 [ S E T ] D A R PA N A A C A D E M Y
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
0
4
8
12m
1:200 RIVERFRONT SECTION, SEVEN BHARATANATYAM SITUATIONS
Existing Darpana Academy of Performing Arts shown above between bracket lines
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
0
4
8
12m
1:100 RIVERFRONT ELEVATION, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
0
2
4
6
m
1:50 SECTION DD, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
A
A
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
//
THE RAVIVARI BAZAAR, OR SUNDAY MARKET
page 71
PA R T I I
HAND [ T H AT O F T H E S K Y ]
[2.1]
The Looming Monsoon Systems of Water Capture
[2.2]
Aridity and Air Finding and Flailing Shade
[2.3].
Ascending Spaces Thinness within Thickness
[2.4].
Rhythmic Illuminations Performativity of Light
[2.5]
Performing to the Sabaramti Opening stages to the River
page 73
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
[2.1] THE LOOMING MONSOON SYSTEMS OF WATER CAPTURE
The pols of Ahmedabad hold an intricate network of water harvesting. The intensity of this invisible wetness, when mapped through different planes, reveals an urban grain which is rich in environmental and social strata.17 This speculation explores the edge condition of the river bank as a fissured threshold of wet and dry, as part of the ever increasing flood risk 18 . This is orchestrated through interconnected water systems, or fissures. Water tanks, cisterns and channels harness the heavy rain wall of the monsoon season to use during the dry seasons by mimicking the long standing systems in place in the Pols of Ahmedabad.
17 Architecture in Development, N.D. Pol Houses, accessed December 20, 2019, https://www.architectureindevelopment.org/ 18 BBC, India Gujarat floods kill more than 200, published August 1, 2017, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-40787080
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
Gestures of Hand- R R oo oo ff sa ob vo ve re t h e S a b a r m a t i
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
3. Brick Iranian Cooling Tower
1. Water channel irrigation network
0
2. Rainwater Collection tank
2
4
6m
1:50 SECTION DD, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
4. River Overflow Relief Cistern
1. Indian Hardwood Cladding, 25mm x 25mm x 500mm
2. Indian Softwood Templates, 50mm x 50mm x L
2. Steel Joinery at 3500mm centres. Cantilever Steel Floor Joist
A Swelling Sill Detail for “The Mirror” Gesture Facade
A.
1:20 Section
1:20 Elevation of 3500mm Panel Composite
A [SWELLING] TIMBER SILL DETAIL
D D
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
page 81
MU D R A S // Mudras, or single hand gestures taken across the New City walls of Ahmedabad. Co-author Desmond Su Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
[2.2] ARIDITY AND AIR F INDING AND FLAILING SHADE
Ahmedabad is a semi-arid city. It is scorched by the sun and has one of the world’s highest air pollution levels.19 During the dry seasons it is reaching ever increasing temperatures as the effects of Urban Heat Island Effect and Climate change worsen.20 The act of finding shade is therefore also an act of finding refuge during the summer months. Architectural speculations hence harness the notion of a roofscape to create a performative spill of shade in across the bare banks of the Sabarmati.
19 The Ministry of Urban Development Government of India. “Smart Cities Mission Statement and Guidelines.” Published June 2015, http://smartcities.gov.in/ upload/uploadfiles/files/SmartCityGuidelines(1).pdf. 20 Aneesh Mathew, Sumit Khandelwal, Nivedita Kaul. Analysis of diurnal surface temperature variations for the assessment of surface urban heat island effect over Indian cities, Energy and Buildings. Jaipur, 2017, https://www-sciencedirect-com. ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0378778817308617
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
0
1
2m
Co-authorDesmond Su
Shadow Diagram
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
SPIN E S / /
Brick spines act as Iranian cooling towers, allowing for convections of cool air to provide thermal comfort to the theatre. They are sat upon water tanks which collect water during the monsoon season.
Brick spines act as Iranian cooling towers
page 87
//
The Lilavati Lalbhai Library, CEPT University, RMA Architects
page 89
02. VA D A J S T E P W E L L
01.
04.
03.
Co-author Desmond Su
page 91
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
[2.3] ARIDITY AND AIR
Co-author Desmond Su
page 93
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
02. VA D A J S T E P W E L L
01.
[A]
04.
03.
page 95
// CEPT University, RMA Architects
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
[ 2 . 3 ] A S C E N D I N G S PA C E S THINNESS WITHIN THICKNESS
In the Old City, thick masonry walls are pierced by timber lined Gates. These gates perforate the city and allow for a thinness within thickness. As the semi-arid climate of Ahmedabad demands heavy massing to provide moments of cool respite, the architectural proposals of the thesis pay tribute to the perforated Old Walls and lay a new set of pierced, cooling brick. Hanging from the heavy brick massing, light timber clad moments offer a feeling of suspension in the otherwise grounded tectonics.
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
C
0
C
2
4
6
m
1:50 SECTION BB, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
page 99
Figure 4
Man at Khanpur Gate
Desmond Su, Ahmedabad January 2020
Timber Moments within Brick and Stone Massing at Khanpur Gate
GAT ES // Materials of the Old Walls, Section at Khanpur Gate [Co-Author Desmond Su]
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
FIRST FLOOR PLAN, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
SECOND FLOOR PLAN, THE SABARMATI THEATRE
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
S U S P E N D E D A N I M AT I O N S [ V A D A J S T E P W E L L , A P E R F O R M A N C E ]
02. VA D A J S T E P W E L L
01.
03.
04.
page 105
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
Co-author Desmond Su
A S TA I R TO T H E S A B A R M AT I S TA G E A pivot within masonry massing [moment belonging to the Sabarmati Theatre]
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
[ 2 . 4 ] R H Y T H M I C I L L U M I N AT I O N S PERFORMATIVITY OF LIGHT
At night, the Sabarmati river edge is dotted by regular streetlights, masking an identity more similar to the Seine or the Thames than a Gujarati city.21 Yet, as the Seine and Thames boast movement in the dark, the Sabarmati sits still. In the same manner that the shadows of Ahmedabad provide respite during the day, this speculation welcomes the public from the cold linear bank into a warm, hyperperformative play of light during the evening. Rhythmic illuminations entice the passer-by into the Bharatanatyam Stages.
21 Shah, Ahmedabad, A City in The World, 29-49.
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
//
Cept University Architecture Studios
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
PERFORMATIVITY OF LIGHT- HUNG STAGES
page 113
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
page 115
//
Seven Bharatanatyam Situations, Riverfront 3D Lighting the Sabarmati
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
page 117
//
Illuminating The Green Marble Dance Floor Interior Stage Render
Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
page 119
Leaking Light onto the Green Marble Dance Floor Concept Diagram
FIGURE 3
// Triangle Robert Stephens, Walls of Ahmedabad Exhbition, The Matthew Gallery 2019.
[2.5]
PERFORMING TO
T H E S A B A R M AT I
OPENING STAGES TO THE RIVER
Just as the thesis enquiry begins with the cue to reopen Darpana’s stage to the Sabarmati, it closes with a performance to the Sabarmati. In Bharatanatyam, there is a sacred connection between the Gods, the performance and the water. 22 In opening Darpana and expanding both dance and civic stages to the river, public life is invited back to the Sabarmati as part of a gestural blurring of wetness.
22 Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 129-132.
page 121
page 123
H AND AN D H E E L //
Gestures of Heel hold the greeen marble stages along the Sabarmati river edge whilst the gesture of hand hang perfromative roofs above it
Ground Floor Plan, The Sabarmati Theatre
First Floor Plan, The Sabarmati Theatre
page 125
SPECULA-
ANIMATION
Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
[E]
[3]
[A]
[D]
[0]
[C]
[6]
[1]
[5]
[A] [3] [2] [1]
[4]
[2]
[B]
[0] [B]
[C]
[0] 0
10
20
30
40m
[D]
Situation 03: Bhadra Gate New Dance Floors lay across Old Walls
0
2
4
6
8m
A context to root Bharatanatyam Fragments: Elevation at Bhadra Gate, 1:100 PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION
Co-authorIona Hoggarth A Man in the Gate, Bhadra Fort. Desmond Su.
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Part I: Heel [that of the ground]
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TO THE S AB A R MAT I //
Carved and cantilevered stages along the Sabarmati river edge
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Part II: Hand [that of the sky]
AC ROSS AHM E DABA D // Fragments of the thesis enquiry are imagined to be enigmatic within the urban grain between defined situations.. This drawing alludes to how the architecture of Dance Floors and Aqua Fissures surfaces between Situation 1: Darpana and Situation 2: Vadaj Stepwell.
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PA R T I I I D I S C O U R S E [MEANS OF MAKING]
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Part I I I: Discourse [Methods]
[3.1] GESTURING Throughout this thesis, making has been conceived through gesturing. As part of the design process, I exaggerated and exacerbated movements of the tectonics to highlight key moments within emerging tectonics. These were overlaid and regestures in a cyclical process.
[3.2] ANIMATING I have used many types of media as part of my thesis project. Both by using the medium of animation and through drawings which portray an animate quality allowed for freer tectonic explorations which were able to resonated with the qualities of dance.
[3.3] SUSPENDING Moments of suspension has been a key tool for my thesis. This manifested through events such as exhibitions or as pauses within developing animate drawings. At this point of the architectural process, gestural animations calcify until reopened in the next iteration.
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GE S TURI NG // Darpana Academy of Performing Arts was founded by Mrinalini Sarabai in 1949
[3.1] GESTURING Throughout this thesis, making has been conceived through gesturing. As part of the design process, I exaggerated and exacerbated movements of the tectonics to highlight key moments within emerging tectonics. These were overlaid and regestures in a cyclical process.
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Part I I I: Discourse [Methods]
[3.2] ANIMATING I have used many types of media as part of my thesis project. Both by using the medium of animation and through drawings which portray an animate quality allowed for freer tectonic explorations which were able to resonated with the qualities of dance.
PETER SALTER INTER-STUDIO REVIEW
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A N IMAT ING //
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts was founded by Mrinalini Sarabai in 1949
SU SP E N D IN G / / Framed studio moment, Peter Salter interstudio reviews, February 2020
[3.3] SUSPENDING Moments of suspension has been a key tool for my thesis. This manifested through events such as exhibitions or as pauses within developing animate drawings. At this point of the architectural process, gestural animations calcify until reopened in the next iteration.
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Part I I I: Discourse [Methods]
CONCL US I O N / / A Bharatanatyam Enquiry
T his t hesis enqu ir y, Dance F loors and Aqua F issu res f u r rows into t he socio-pol it ica l, env ironmenta l and tectonics of Bha ratanat ya m dance w it hin t he cit y of A hmedabad. A s one of t he oldest and most sacred c lassica l dance for ms in Ind ia, which was once made i l lega l in an act of socia l cont rol, Da r pana Academy and t he Sa rabha i fa mi ly have an eng ra ined impor tance, not on ly w it hin Guja rat but across Ind ia. 2 3 T he proposed e x pansion for civ ic prov ision for Bha ratanat ya m fol lowed an enqu ir y into gest u res of hand and heel to re-gest u re t he monol it hic concrete bu lwa rk which severed Da r pana- and much of t he cit y- f rom t he Saba r mat i. In ta k ing a mant le f rom t he na r rat ive gest u res of Bha ratanat ya m, it has been int r insic to consider t he gest u res of g round and sk y a longside t hose of Heel and Hand. Hence t his desig n repor t is an osci l lat ion bet ween f u r rows into t he tectonics of Hand and of Heel as t he socio-pol it ica l and env ironmenta l demands of g round and sk y in t he d r y, wa l led cit y of A hmedabad.
23 Sarabhai, Understanding Bharatanatyam, 11-80.
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B I B L I O G R A P H Y:
Akil Amiraly, Nathalie Prime, J.P. Singh. 2004. Rainwater harvesting, alternative to the water supply in Indian urban areas : The case of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Aneesh Mathew, Sumit Khandelwal, Nivedita Kaul. Analysis of diurnal surface temperature variations for the assessment of surface urban heat island effect over Indian cities. Energy and Buildings. Jaipur, 2017. https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.is.ed. ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0378778817308617 Architecture in Development. N.D. Pol Houses. Accessed December 20, 2019. https://www.architectureindevelopment.org/ Azhar, Mavalankar, Nori-Sarma, Rajiva, Dutta, Jaiswal, Sheffield and Knowlton. Development and Implementation of South Asia’s First Heat-Health Action Plan in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India). University Basel. 2014 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC4024996/ BBC. 2017. India Gujarat floods kill more than 200. Published August 1, 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asiaindia-40787080 (CMDA) Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. N.D. Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project: Improvements to Waterways. Accessed November 28, 2019. http://www.cmdachennai.gov.in/pdfs/ SeminarOnWaterways/4.pdf Climate-Data. N.D. Ahmedabad Climate. Accessed December 20, 2019. https://en.climate-data.org/asia/india/gujarat/ ahmedabad-2828/ Dempsey, Nicola, Smriti Rabina Jayaraj & Emily Redmond. “There’s always the river: social and environmental equity in rapidly urbanising landscapes in India, Landscape Research.” 2017. DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2017.1315389.
Gulrez Shah Azhar, Dileep Mavalankar, Amruta Nori-Sarma, Ajit Rajiva, Priya Dutta, Anjali Jaiswal, Perry Sheffield, Kim Knowlton, Jeremy J. Hess, on behalf of the Ahmedabad Heat Climate Study Group. Heat-Related Mortality in India: Excess All-Cause Mortality Associated with the 2010 Ahmedabad Heat Wave. Published: March 14, 2014 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091831 Indian Architects. N.D. Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project. Accessed November 18, 2020. https://www.indian-architects.com/en/hcpdpm-ahmedabad/ project/sabarmati-riverfront-development-project K.R.Gunawardenaa, M.J.Wellsb, T.Kershawa. Utilising green and bluespace to mitigate urban heat island intensity. Science of the Total Enivronment, 2017. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ pii/S0048969717301754 Sarabhai, Mrinalini. Understanding Bharatanatyam. Ahmedabad: A Darpana Publication, 2018. Shah, Amrita. Ahmedabad, A City in The World. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Sheth, Priyanka, Tanvi Jain, and Riyaz Tayyibji. Stepwells Of Ahmedabad - exhibition at Yale Architecture. (Ahmedabad: Anthill Design, 2018.) https://architexturez.net/doc/az-cf-188335. The Ministry of Urban Development Government of India. “Smart Cities Mission Statement and Guidelines.” Published June 2015, http:// smartcities.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/SmartCityGuidelines(1).pdf. Wiszniewski, Dorian. Bombay City Wise, Parasituation Mumbai. Ampersand: Edinburgh, 2016. Wiszniewski, Dorian. Argufying Calcutta, Parasituation [Calcutta/ Kolkata]. Wedge Publications: Edinburgh, 2019. Wiszniewski, Dorian. Walls and Gates, Parasituation [Ahmedabad]]. Wedge Publications: Edinburgh, 2020. Wiszniewski, Dorian, PARA-Situation [Ahmedabad] “Past present Possible” Studio Brief 2019.
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F I G U R E L I S T:
Figure 1
Astodia Gate
Robert Stephens, Walls of Ahmedabad Exhbition,
The Matthew Gallery, Minto House 2019.
Figure 2
Arial of Ahmedabad
Robert Stephens, Walls of Ahmedabad Exhbition,
The Matthew Gallery, Minto House 2019.
Figure 3
Darpana Academy of Performing Arts
Figure 4
Man at Khanpur Gate
Figure 5
Triangle
Robert Stephens, Walls of Ahmedabad Exhbition,
The Matthew Gallery, Minto House 2019.
Desmond Su, Ahmedabad January 2020
Desmond Su, Ahmedabad January 2020
All images unless stated above are authors own.
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ACKNO W L E DG E M E N T S // Thanks to Iona, Pam, Jamie, Seva and Desmond. Over the course of the programme I have worked with each of one these talented people; sometimes as a formal group but most often by benefitting from their conversation. They have been great collaborators, challengers, teachers and wonderful friends.
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