Urban Design Portfolio_KanakaThakker

DESIGN PORTFOLIO

KANAKA THAKKER

Name

Date of Birth

Nationality

Contact Information

Kanaka Thakker

13.10.1986

Indian

Email : thakkerkanaka@gmail.com

Contact Number : +44 7721 548616

Permanent Address : Thakker House, P.O. Box Number. 8, Vasco Da Gama, Goa-India 403 802

Education

University of Westminster London

PhD - Architecture

September 2023- Present

Masters of Arts in Interior Architecture

September 2022 - September 2023

University of Arts London

Short Courses in Lighting design, Interior Decoration, & How to start an Interior Design business

June 2017 - August 2017

Architectural Association School of Architecture, London

University of Pune, Sinhgad College of Architecture, Pune

Professional Experience

Masters of Arts in Housing and Urbanism,

September 2011- September 2012

Bachelors in Architecture (First Class)

August 2004 - May 2009

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER, London

May 2023- August 2023

Research Intern

DESIGN KA:THA , Mumbai.

May 2017- September 2020

Principal Architect

L S RAHEJA COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE , Mumbai.

May 2018- Jan 2020 .

Visiting Faculty

RATAN. J. BATLIBOI - CPL , Mumbai.

May 2013- May 2017

Urban designer, Project Head Urban Design

INTEGRID DESIGN , Pune

November 2009 - February 2011

Junior Architect

Research, Publications, Initiatives

India @ 70 : An appeal for the creative makeover of August Kranti Maidan and Azad Maidan by the art and science of placemaking. (Publication with Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai 2013)

Localised Tech Parklets: A concept for new urban commons

5th International Conference on Smart Cities & Green ICT Systems ( SMARTGREENS ) Rome 2016

India @ 70

An appeal for the creative makeover of Azad Maidan

Publication as a part of RJB-CPL + Observer Research Foundation collaboration Location : Mumbai, Maharashtra

Date of completion: August 2014

Role: Urban Designer, Ratan J Batliboi - CPL

1. Political Party Complex and Press Club

2. Human Rights Courts Complex

3. Bombay Gymkhana

4. Municipal Offices

5. Maharashtra State Sports Association

6. Towards Churchgate Station

7. Cross Maidan

8. Towards CST station

Azad Maidan along with the adjacent Cross Maidan, Oval Maidan and Cooperage Grounds was once an unbroken expanse known as the Esplanade Grounds. Azad Maidan currently has 22 cricket pitches. Though quite popular among cricketers, the maidan does not offer basic amenities such as toilets, drinking water or adequate seating for players and spectators alike.

The protest space, made of bamboo sticks and a canvas canopy, is the most prominent one in Maharashtra and yet it has been cordoned off with metal sheets and fences offering no visibility.

Increasingly large parts of the maidan’s periphery have fallen victim to encroachment and land grabbing thus completely blocking the view of the maidan from outside.

The maidan also serves as an important thoroughfare from CST station towards Marine Lines and Churchgate stations and is used throughout the day by a multitude of people.

Pedestrian Movement

Concept for proposed mastersplan

The proposed vision is to establish Azad Maidan as the Sports Hub for Mumbai that brings cricket along with other sporting activities and playing areas closer to general public. The Master Plan shall re-imagine the edge of the Maidan with strategically located built forms between 2 loops; The Commuter Loop and the Sports Loop. This strategy eliminates the need for fences and shall restrict further encroachment of open spaces.

The master plan shall provide more space for other sports and two new parks that shall attract women, students and visitors of all age group to use the Maidan besides the cricketers. The Maidan shall be a 24 x 7 open space with adequate lighting, amenities and activate edges that shall provide security, safety and comfort to the users. The central portion of the Maidan preserves the heritage of cricket on site while the newly designed edges shall provide infrastructure for running, cycling, walking, kids play area and adult recreation zones etc.

LEGEND

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. Cricket Museum

6.

7. Pavilions

8.

9.

10.

12.

Mumbai Gymkhana

Bombay Gymkhana

Freedom Plaza

Indoor Sports Facilities

New ENSA Enclave

Family Park

Peoples’ Oasis

Cricket Practicing Pitches

11. Athletic Track

Covered Thoroughfare

13. Protest Area

14. Mumbai Media Centre and Museum

PROPOSED MASTERPLAN FOR AZAD MAIDAN

USER GROUP ANALYSIS

RANKING OF ISSUES BY STAKEHOLDERS

Night Use

Shopping

Sports & Fitness

Recreational Activities

Maintenance & Upkeep

Weather Protection

Food & Beverage

Sanitation & Cleanliness

Safety & Security

Walkability & Connectivity

Pedestrian Commuters

Protestors

Cricketers

Residents in 1km radius

Mumbai Sports Association

Domestic & Foreign Tourists

Press Club

Local eateries & small businesses

PROPOSED ACTIVITIES AND AMENITIES

PROPOSED SECTION CC THROUGH FAMILY PARK

Given this history of the Maidan,the proposal aims to preserve the heritage of such peaceful demonstrations in Azad Maidan by providing the protestors a more visible area of protest, allowing the Maidan to be truly public in nature..

PROPOSED SECTION DD THROUGH FREEDOM PARK

The historic pavillions shall be redesigned along the edges of the Maidan with toilets, lockers and shower facilities. The roof of the pavillions shall have accessible seating for viewing matches played at the Maidan.

A new Mumbai Gymkhana at the northern apex of the Maidan shall be the new sports centre, open to all the citizens of Mumbai, that will provide world class infrastructure for a minimal fee.

IIT GANDHINAGAR

Shortlisted entry for design competition for proposed masterplan of student housing

Katta

Location : Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Date of participation : March 2017

Role: Urban Design Project Head, Ratan J Batliboi - CPL

‘distance’

‘length of time’

Poha/snack corners

Laundry

Constructive debates

Silence

Corner sit outs

On the way..

Repair

Lost in thought

Chance encounter

IIT-Gandhinagar Campus is currently under construction and has a student hostel requirement of 4200 units. After completing 1200 units (designed by HCP, Ahmedabad), IIT-G floated a competition for the next phase of 1200 units. The design brief required that the layout be based on the courtyard concept.

The design explores the concept of a typical courtyard, deriving a new flexible courtyard that encourages chance encounters, inculcating new social dynamics and tries to achieve a vibrant campus life. The design studies the morning and evening path taken by the students to the acadmic block and back, attempting to redefine it by value additions that will encourage social activities, creating a safe and secure campus without closed walls. The entry to be submitted was required to be strictly in grayscale.

Green buffer at building edge

Effective use of open space

Sit outs Trees on West and South facade

Trail options

ROUTE TAKEN AFTER CLASS

Library

Chemist & stationary shop

HOSTEL BUILDING

VIEW OF COURTYARD

NODAL COMMUNITY BUILDING (CANTEEN & DINING HALL)

VIEW OF ENTRANCE OF COURTYARD

VIEW OF AMPHITHEATRE

VIEW OF SPACE INBETWEEN BUILDINGS

Cycle parking

Cycle

Bigger Windows on the Northern face

Deeper windows on the southern face

Windows that allow more North-Eastern light

Windows that allow for more Western & North-Western light

LAYOUT OF HOSTEL ROOMS THAT ARE PLANNED WITH CLIMATIC RESPONSE

1. NORTH FACING WINDOWS

2. SOUTH FACING WINDOWS

3. EAST FACING WINDOWS

4. WEST FACING WINDOWS

ROOM FOR SINGLE OCCUPANTS ROOM FOR THREE OCCUPANTS

VIEW OF HOSTEL BUILDINGS FROM AMPHITHEATRE

Rethinking

Mehrangarh Fort & Museum Precinct

Client: Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur

Location : Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Date of completion: February 2017

1Role: Urban Design Project Head, Ratan J Batliboi - CPL

One of the most significant example of Fort architecture in India, Mehrangarh Fort is leading the way in conservation and museum design. The vision of Mehrangarh Museum Trust - MMT, is to build on the existing assets and develop a comprehensive Mehrangarh Master Plan that will integrate best practices in museum design with a state of the art infrastructure to support the Fort complex. The challenge was to develop a vision that will set a trend in conservation practice and integrated sustainable design for heritage sites in India. The masterplan aimed at providing a strong framework plan that is visionary yet executable in a phased manner. The understanding of the project and client expectations are explained in the form of the following set of objectives:

To ENHANCE all the facilities to international standards

To EXPAND the museum to meet increasing footfalls

To ENGAGE with the community

PLANS IDENTIFYING AREAS OF OPPORTUNITIES IN THE FORT

Analysis of existing data available across various scales, ranging from the museum complex, the Fort precinct to the walled city was conducted. At the Fort level, the study included collecting information about visitor demographics, circulation / parking conditions, movement patterns, amenities like toilets, food, retail, ticketing, galleries, etc. The primary aim of the exercise was to record and document the current visitor experience of the Fort. The team also conducted interviews with various stakeholders as part of the site visits, including members from the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, travel agents and local experts to get variety of inputs and perspectives about the image of the Fort and its impact on the surroundings.

The proposal aims to create a new first and last experience for the visitor. The design hopes to harness the potential of the existing water body and treat it as a welcoming element. The proposal intends to develop it as an independent destination in itself that can be frequented by the locals. The addition of this new destination hopes to extend the overall visiting hours of the Fort. The design caters to the large number of footfalls that the Fort receives, thus incorporating holding spaces for large crowds.

The museum is currently located in the palace complex and the curatorial narrative is presently object centric. The existing trail is analysed for problems such as overcrowding, lack of amenities and potential for curatorial interventions. Based on this analysis, new trails are suggested to enhance the museum experience.

04

Transforming the Lower

Lea Valley : Beyond the Large Plan

Location : London, UK

Date of completion: May 2012

Role: Group Design workshop, MA Housing and Urbanism,Architecture Association

School of Architecture, London

The Lower Lea Valley Design Workshop explores the question of ‘‘what is the aim of a large plan and who develops the extensive area of LLV?’’

The work starts by examining how the LLV is presently planned. Several master plans have been put forward for the area, with the Olympic Park as a prime example. The large plan can be an advantage when dealing with complex situations but it also confronts us with a set of problems. Vacant land of considerable size often leads to extensive interventions, the integration of complex financial players and the self interest of private investors. Waterfronts and shopping streets become ‘managed’ by business associations that impose their own identity to the site-in this case benefiting IKEA or the 2012 Olympics.

Also discussed on a large scale are different issues related to the complex effects of globalisation on the economy and society as London evolves from an industrial society to a service and knowledgebased one. The exercise raises the discussion on how to reinvest in knowlege; taking form as both investments that go beyond conventional educational institutions as well as new ways of clustering environments of different uses, work activities, leisure and individual living.

THE URBAN GRAIN OF LLV

The urban grain of LLV presents vast land littered with large structures fragmented by gaps in infrastructure and lack of link between areas.

LLV BETWEEN CENTRAL LONDON AND THAMES GATEWAY

Points of Intensity

Points of Intensity

Valley Conditions

Edge Conditions

VARIOUS BORDER CONDITIONS AT THE EDGES OF THE VALLEY AND THE INDUSTRIAL CHARACTER

SPATIAL FRAMEWORK

Through the spatial reading of the valley, a framework was set in order to create a base for analysis and implementation. The three main aspects of the LLV that directed the line of work were; the ‘Edge Conditions’, the ‘Valley’ condition, and the ‘Points of Intensity’. This spatial framework is used as the criterion for suitable interventions in the area.

On a smaller scale the book examines specific site potentials in LLV and its spatial characteristics such as porosity of edge conditions, interfaces, voids and points of intensity. Here the role of the topographical character of LLV is of particular importance- How the LLV possesses not only a landscape with a conventional scenic attraction but also how it has a unique morphology that consists of industrial roughness and large infra structural lines.

BIG OBJECTS VALLEY CONDITIONS

CONDITIONS

POINTS OF INTENSITY

EXISTING STRUCTURES

The Sugar Lane House strips are interesting in two ways: on one hand they are busy lines connecting two sides of the valley, providing effective and fast connectivity and linking existing communities; on the other hand the same infrastructural systems are challenging because they often only poorly connect to the LLV at the local scale.

Demonstrated by a range of interventions (Stratford Hill and the Idea Shed) the final design work suggests how topography can be used as a tool in re-generating LLV and how a range of issues would benefit from further site development. This would allow for the accessibility and movement between various strategic points in LLV. The friction of scales and programs provides for a quality of adaptable built space including innovative live-work typologies.

SUGAR LANE HOUSE STRIPS

INTERVENTION I

The Stratford Hill Strip:

The Stratford Hill Strip combines a mixed work/live environment with a special approach to both a waterfront and a busy High-Street. Making more permeable edges and enhancing interaction between communities. This intervention tries to materialise the drivers of landscape, and the threedimensionality of the Valley found in its infrastructure and extending to the geography of the Greenway. opography is used as a tool in the form of the plinth which acts as a mediator between different privacies and shaping a new, softer water’s edge. The surface of the Strip creates a new centrality where the urban meets the suburban.

1. UNDERPASS

2.STRATFORD HIGH STREET

3. WATER EDGE

4. LIVE WORK/ MIXED

INTERVENTION II

Characterized by an interconnected, organic, streamlined surface, this intervention houses inclusive spaces for purposes of leisure, education, and entertainment for the existing citizens. This intervention is named the Knowledge Playground with its emphasis on the creation of unique spaces for learning experience. This architectural intervention creates a sequence of inspiring, spontaneous spaces contrasted by rigid classrooms and structures.

2. NEW STRUCTURES IN SUBURBS

3. EXISTING STRUCTURES

1. INTENSIFICATION BY BRIDGES

The Idea Shed Strip:

The proposal re-states the main objective; the discussion of how to plan in LLV. The key in planning ‘large’ is to use a mixture of tools that can be applied to and cover the range of multiple scales. For this reason the Strips , with their surgical interventions and clearly defined projects that act as catalysts of change in the closed context could never stand alone. The successful plan attempts to combine both the effectiveness of an extensive and controlled master plan along with inputs from private real estate companies that can inject capital and additional inventiveness, all the while leaving room for flexibility and change. The final piece of work should therefore be viewed as a complementary plan that supports existing developments.

05

The Extended Body

Location : London, UK

Date of completion: September 2023

Role: Thesis Dissertation,

MA Interior Architecture, University of Westminster, London

The study of the relationship between the body and its surrounding space has been conducted extensively under various fields like ergonomics, anthropology, psychology, sociology and philosophy. The dissertation initially began as an investigation of compact formats of living for nonfamily units and to understand how the body navigates tight spaces, I began studying my own body. The analysis of the body, its movements and gestures while performing daily rituals led me to deviate from this initial line of inquiry, instead bringing the focus of the dissertation on the question, ‘how does the body inhabit space?’

Using an autoethnographic research methodology a study of daily activities like watching TV, dressing, cooking etc is conducted. Techniques like photo- documentation, light study and animation study are used to spatialise the form of each activity. The study reinforces the obvious, that how we live is in complete contrast tothe beautifully curated images that sell the idea of home in magazines andIt compels one to think that as designers, we may carefully consider the dimensions of the human body, but that would be only an exercise of space planning.

In an activity as simple as sleeping, the body at times starts using objects like pillows, mobile and blanket as extensions of the body and sometimes it sinks into the horizontal and vertical surface of the bed for support. One could almost look at this exchange between the body, objects and surfaces as one entity, that is the ‘Extended Body’.

Stating that the ‘Extended Body’ is more complex than what simple ergonomics and measurables allow for, the dissertation recommends a further investigation into this concept to help designing better habitable spaces. The study concludes that domestic interiors need to be viewed as a staging area that facilitates the form of extended body, allowing it to create networks or patterns to inhabit. The dissertation also suggests scaling up this concept of the extended body and applying it across various scales of built form to design inclusive cities.

07

Still, Life

Facilitated by art historian and academic Prof Apurva Kulkarni, this interdisciplinary residency addressed this pandemic while confronting isolation, panic and the anguish of losing loved ones through the arts, seeking resolutions from deep within.

The swing

Oscillating across the three realms, Lessons of the past, Determination of the present, Leap of faith into the future. A pause today, To turn my back on yesterday, Flight of hope for a better day.

Art Residency by Atlamirra

chair

Back and forth, Between the past and the present. Leaning into the abyss of the lost, To sieve through memories of the familiar. Hoping to linger for a moment longer, To go against the rhythm of reality.

Awakened by the jolt of the existing To embrace the reluctant unknown.

The rocking