Karthika Ranjit Architectural Portfolio Selected works 2014 - 2022
2 Hello! My name is Karthika Ranjit, a recent Architectural graduate from the faculty of Architecture at TU Delft. This portfolio is a compilation of a few of my academic, professional, and competition works between 2014 and 2022. Throughout my projects, I hope to portray my interests in the social potential of architecture, explored through writing, study models, and research as design tools. Professional experience Junior Architect at RAW NYC Architects Dubai, United Arab Emirates December 2019 - August 2020 Intern Student at Vo Trong Nghia Architects (VTN) Hanoi, Vietnam March 2019 - June 2019 Intern Student at X Architects Dubai, United Arab Emirates August 2018 - February 2019 Intern Student at SHE Architekten Hamburg, Germany May 2018 - July 2018 Academic experience Master of Architecture, Urbanism, and Building Sciences TU Delft The2020Netherlands-2022 Bachelor of Architecture Manipal School of Architecture and Planning 2014India-2019 Exchange student (Bachelors) Deakin University Australia July 2017 - October 2017 For extended version of resume: please check the attached pdf
3 Selected Works Academic Works A Neighbourhood Place Gleaning the Everyday Maastricht, The Netherlands Masters Graduation Project, 2022 4 Ways of Living An experiment on 4 ways of living Rotterdam, The Netherlands Masters semester 1 Project, 2020 18 Mangrove Conservation Center Architecture: A thing of Place or a thing of Time? Dubai, The United Arab Emirates Bachelors Graduation Project, 2018 26 24(h)our Geelong Principles of Cross Programming Geelong, Victoria, Australia Superstudio, exchange semester, 2017 34 Professional Work Al Saliya Iraq Pavilion at World Expo 2020 RAW NYC Architects, 2019 Dubai, The United Arab Emirates 40 Competition Works Living amidst courtyards A house Top 15/Honourable mention, 2019 Dehradun, India 42 A Tale of Time Temporary Pavilion Winner, 2020 Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia 44
The graduation project centered around the research of the concept of ‘the everyday’, the definition, its relation to architecture, and how it alters for each individual. Inspired from the 19th century painting of ‘The Gleaners’, gleaning was the core studio theme. It is the act of finding value in something that is left behind. This project explores the themes through the literary lenses.
A Neighbourhood Place Gleaning the Everyday Masters Graduation Project, 2022 Research: Gleaning the Everyday Design: An elementary school Maastricht, The Netherlands
As the industrial past of the site fades, the future is yet to be defined. Alternate to commodification of the site, it explores the effects of gleaning the everyday on the urban character of the neighbhourhood.
Set within the existing conditions of the slopes of Bassin and trees, the design adopts the principles of an Open Air School, seen in its the form, planning, and detailing. The school here is considered as a world of its own, with multiple actors throughout the day and the architecture translates this sequences of events into a social place of familiarity for both the children and the neighbours.
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The works of French theorist George Perec centered around the concepts of the everyday and the ordinary, help translate the research into the design of a neighbourhood through an elementary school within Boschstraatkwartier in Maastricht.
5 What happens when nothing happens other than the weather, people, cars, and clouds...
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The existing urban fabric of Maastricht with the site of exploration, Boschstraatkwartier to the north of the inner city
Proposed Urban plan: a set of urban strategies to revive the existing communities, ecology, and the industrial character. This translates into placemakers with both the existing and new, as well as everyday programs across the site.
8 0 2 4 6 8 10 m The existing neighbourhood
9 1. Sports hall 2. Teacher’s 10.Sports9.8.7.6.5.4.Kindergarten3.KindergartenpantrypantrystorageKindergartenfoyerKindergartengroupareaClassroomgroup8SportshallfoyerLibraryhallgallery 1. 5. 10. 8. 9. 7. 6. 7. 0 2 4 6 8 10 m The proposed neighbourhood: Section
The design centered around gleaning the only existing elements on site: The soil and the four tree. These were gleaned into the design through the sequence of spaces and the form typology defined by the slope and the four trees.
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11 The bench swerves around the four trees. Trees seem to be birch ...
12 1 4 5 6 7 2 3 Neighbhor ChildParentTeacher Student 0 2 4 6 8 10 m Slope/ground floor (0.0)
13 1 2 3 4 1311 12 17 18 16 14 15 5 7 9 8 6 10 Neighbhor ChildParentTeacher Student 0 2 4 6 8 10 m First floor (+8.0)
14 Underlying aluminium coping Metal ties T angle section Screed 60mm Water vapour barrier Thermal insulation 250mm Water vapour barrier Finishing MineralwaterCementFacadebalustrade12mmconstruction:board13mmvaporbarrier(open)woolthermalinsulation 160mm Water vapor barrier (closed) CLT wall 90mm (3 layers) Air cavity 20mm Triple glazed Aluminium framed awning window 10 2m 50 413 Part section showing the staggered brick balustrade
The teacher decides to give up the struggle and decides to have the class outside on the balcony today ...
Three children sit on the bench by the corner, eating their pre-game snack . On the other side of the glazed door, there is an old man sitting comfortably and reading the evening newspaper...
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16 Part section showing the various spatial arrangements of the kindergarten, elementary school and the library. As a new proposal, the section also shows the material choice of structural timber as one that holds the potential to be gleaned. 0 2 4 6 8 10 m Roof (1) lvl +16.0 m Library lvl + 12.0 m Classroom lvl +8.0 m Street lvl + 4.0 m Kindergarten play lvl +0.0
As the neighbhours seat themselves on the bench under the trees, they are enveloped by the familar chatter from all around them. Looking up, they see trees, brick, and happy faces peaking down at them ...
17 0 2 4 6 8 10 m
The project is set against the concrete realities and challenges within the Dutch context of a post harbour area of M4H. The design is a response to the consequences of these, on the site and its inhabitants.
18 Ways of Living
Latent Living is a proposal that stems from the definition of latent ie, ‘present and capable of developing, but not now visible’ and is an experiment on spatial evolution within the M4H ecosystem.
It proposes an urban laboratory of experiments on symbiotic living between nature, architecture, and inhabitants, within the ecosystem of M4H. The scales range from the urban planning to reconnect the existing, ways of new living configurations within a common system, to the reuse of existing building structures.
An experiment on 4 ways of living Latent Living Masters semester 1 Project, 2020 Group urban strategy Individual living proposal M4H Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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20 Conversation amongst the various programs Conversation amongst the collaborators
21 Assessing buildings as places of memories Proposal of a form typology to the production spaces Programatising nature as a crucial actor within the masterplan
Located in the heart of the public area of the urban laboratory, this is proposal revolves around timber grids as placemakers and catalysts to the experiment. It transforms from an architecture that is purely public to a dense housing in the latter stages. This living is in symbiosis with nature through the act of material production for the structures of the laboratory.
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Circulation
Conservation Adaptability Public
23 Typical ground and upper floor plans 0 2 4 6 8 10 m
24 0 2 4 6 8 10 m 10 2m 50 413 Typical section Part section
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Architecture A thing of Place or a thing of Time? Bachelors Graduation Project, 2018 Ras Al Khor conservation area
Dubai, The United Arab Emirates
The thesis consists of a series of interventions from an urban scale conservation strategy, to an architectural scale wetland center. The research regarding nearly zero energy buildings in an arid landscape sets the backdrop to these, to create an architecture that respects its surrounding and celebrates this unique urban wetland.
‘Ras Al Khor’ (Cape of the Creek) was where the first Bani Yas tribe landed on the shores of Dubai, a then barren desert. Today, it stands amidst the chaos of the city as the country’s first RAMSAR site (2007) with over 100 species of birds, of both local and migratory origins.
The undergraduate thesis project is a transdisciplinary attempt at rethinking the relation between architecture and place. On an ecologically sensitive and historically signficant site, this project explores a less glorified side of Dubai.
Mangrove Conservation Center
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Research begins through studying the annual migratory patterns of the birds and layering it with the contextual information, revealing the importance and urgency of preserving this ecologically sensitive site.
29 To hides Aviary access limited Aviary access limited Fire exit 2 Fire exit 1 0.0 lvl Start of partially covered walking trail 800m) Buggy trail (2km) Covered pathway Emergency assembly point Entry/Exit Parking (50, 4 wheelers) Bus bay Entry 0.0 lvl-2.0 lvl Security The design begins with an urban strategy to conserve the existing RAMSAR site through interventions aimed at maintaining the site. At the southern edge, a larger scale architectural intervention of a wetland center is proposed.
A series of paper study models explores the design of a subterranian architecture that would minimise visual barriers for the inhabitants of the wetland.
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31 KITCHEN Research floor -6.0M AUDITORIUMVRFACILITIESSOUNDARCHIVESOPENFLOOR LIBRARY PROJECTIONS INCUBATION CENTER OF Aviary floor -1.5M Admin floor -4.0M ENTRYRECEPTIONFOYER OF 0 100 1050m
The subterranian architecture, led to the choice of excavated earth as the materiality, seen through the rammed earth construction of walls. The structural components are prefabricated off site to hasten the process and minimise disruptions.
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Elevations Sections 0 100 1050m
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34 24(h)our Geelong
The superstudio, focussed on the principles by Bernard Tschumi regarding crossprogramming, applying it to various underused structures within the immediate context. One such building is the 19th century abandoned woolstore in the heart of the city of Geelong. Translating these principles led to the adaptive reuse of the structure into a yearlong coworking space to revitalise the CBD prone to suburbanisation. Within this factory, the introduction of living and working spaces contrast the uniform structural grids built for the efficient use of its former Retainingfunction.thischaracteristic structural feature of the 19th century factories of the region, the design aims at minimal interventions required to ‘cross-program’ and celebrate the architecture of the factory.
Principles of Cross Programming Superstudio, exchange semester, 2017 19th Century wool store ,Geelong, Victoria, Australia
35 Existing section Proposed section
36 Study of the existing, through documentation and study models, reveals the dense timber column beam sturcture and the characteristic saw tooth roof with minimal windows on the periphery. Third floor (+11.00) Second floor (+8.00) First floor (+5.00) Ground floor (0.0) 0 100 1050m
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38 Within this dense structural grid, the ‘co-working’ program finds its way through small scale interventions that respond to the needs of light, space, and flexibility. Following the open floor plan, furniture determined the spaces and was designed to adapt across the day. Third floor (+11.00) Second floor(+8.00) First floor (+5.00) Ground floor (0.00) 0 100 1050m
39 Part Section 10 2m 50 413
The exterior concrete walls followed the freeform of the ‘Al Saliya’ (traditional Iraqi fishing nets) with public spaces of theater, discussion, and dining embedded within them. The impressions on the walls are translations of a series of sciographic studies of seven iraqi date palm trees, quintessential to the Iraqi culture. This along with the planted date palm trees create an ever-changing backdrop to Al Saliya. These curved walls continue to the interior spaces, which houses the VIP spaces, offices, and services.
40 Al Saliya Iraq pavilion, World Expo 2020 RAW NYC Architects Dubai, The United Arab Emirates
‘Al Saliya’ is Iraq’s entry to the World Expo Pavilion 2020 in Dubai (2021-2022). Within this pavilion, I had the opportunity to design both the exterior and the interior spaces of the VIP block located behind the steel frame structure. This was a process of indepth study of the Iraqi history and culture to represent stories of opportunity within the structure, facade, and lighting of these built spaces.
41 OFFICE INFO DESK SERVICE CORRIDOR WITH CONCRETE ROOF BUILDING SERVICES (G+1) SHADED DINING SPACE (20 SEATS) SECRET ROOM WITH CONCRETE ROOF DISCUSSIONSHADEDAREA PANTRY REST AREACONFERENCE ROOM (12 SEATS) VIP LOUNGE VIP LOBBY VIP FEMALE WC MALE ROOMCHANGING STAFF MALE WC FEMALE WASHROOM AND CHANGING AREA VIP MALE WC STAGE +0.45M SHADED THEATER AREA (60 SEATS) WALKWAY+0.45M F1 VIP ENTRANCE PANTRY WITH SERVICE COUNTER FLOOR PLAN UP F2F2 F2 F2F2 F2 F2 F3 F3 F4 W3W1 W5 W4 W3 W6 W7 W2 W8 W8 W8 W8 F4 F4F4F4 0 100 1050m Floor Photographsplan of the built pavilion Section
This interpretation of the modern-day house is a two storey compact house that sustainably utilizes the 300 sqm urban site. The house balances privacy and openness through courtyards and walls with varying degrees of permeability. Through locally sourced sustainable materials, preservation of the existing greenery, and passive design interventions this modern day house aims at living sustainably and celebrating this dense urban site.
42 Living amidst the courtyards A house in a city Top 15 competition entry (group of two) Archue, Dwelling 2100 Dehradun, India
As the name suggests, the house consists of a series of courtyards, intepretated differently across, as a buffer, a garden, or a communal space, within every level of the house.
The competition asked to explore the different interpretations of a modern day house. fffffffffffffffffffffff
43 Roof, +12.0m Second floor, +6.70m First floor, +3.50m Plinth, +0.30m
The competition brief asked for a space to re-encounter man with nature in the solitude of the salt flats.
44 A Tale of Time A Temporary pavilion
The choice of materiality of the metal shards and the salt blocks were an ode to the beautiful yet harsh context of the salt flats. In a place where ‘time stands still’ the passing of time can only be seen through the weathering and ultimate disintegration of the material and hence the structure.
‘Tale of Time’ is a space designed to encapsulate the stillness of the Uyuni Salt Flats. As visitors travel across cities, countries, and continents, to experience this unique destination, the design is a space to pause, reflect, and reconnect. The circular structure creates an internal zone of contemplation by encapsulating time within the blues and browns. The salt bricks paths encircling the shards, emulate the vastness of unhindered panoramic views, and creates a space that defies scale by blurring the built and the unbuilt.
Winning competition entry (group of two) 2020 Silkmatters - Pop up and Temporary Structures Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
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